Appreciating AIM2Flourish’s Year of Growth and Success
Written by Claire Sommer, Fowler Center, AIM2Flourish Director
2018 AIM2Flourish Highlights
January Launched new AIM2Flourish.com Website
March Celebrated our 1000th published stories
Spring Celebrated 2018 Flourish Prizes online and in Mexico
September Launched “AIM2FlourishNEO” regional initiative to collect Northeast Ohio stories in partnership with the City of Cleveland Mayor Frank G. Jackson and the Cleveland Sustainability Office
October Hosted dedicated Weatherhead workshops for Weatherhead undergraduate and graduate students to write AIM2FlourishNEO stories
November Supported Weatherhead MBA student workshop to interview Northeast Ohio business leaders
Published our 1,500th story
December Hosted “Introducing the Global Goals” workshop to Weatherhead staff
The AIM2Flourish program has grown and flourished this year, with the support of our global community of professors, dedicated story editors, inspired student-authors, and the Fowler Center team. We’re proud that the AIM2Flourish continues to be a valuable initiative to spread the Fowler Center’s mission of Appreciative Inquiry, Business as an Agent of World Benefit, and the UN Global Goals to the world’s business students.
AIM2Flourish’s most significant 2018 highlight is a dedicated focus to better serve Weatherhead and Northeastern Ohio professors, students, and business leaders with the AIM2FlourishNEO initiative, as well as our global community. We are very proud that AIM2Flourish is now offered at six Ohio universities by 12 professors. At Weatherhead, seven professors have supported their students to publish 256 stories. These stories will help energize Sustainable Cleveland events in 2019 to recognize Northeast Ohio’s progress in creating a sustainable economy and our potential for a more prosperous future.
Close to home, AIM2Flourish has been presented in 2018 at 10 Weatherhead/Case Western workshops and presentations, two Cleveland conferences including the Sustainable Cleveland 2019 Summit, and 11 student newsletters.
Globally in 2018, we celebrated our 1,000th and 1,500th story milestones, due to the extraordinary contributions of Megan Buchter, AIM2Flourish Operations Manager. This year alone, we are on track to publish over 681 stories – a 25% increase over 2017. Our global community now includes people from 80 countries. See our November 2018 AIM2Flourish Community and Stories report for more details.
This year, AIM2Flourish has been cited in two books, plus a chapter, business article, and peer-reviewed journal article. The AIM2Flourish Latin America Forum in June was covered by the Spanish-language edition of Newsweek, as well as several other national newspapers. AIM2Flourish was presented at conferences in Pittsburgh (twice), New York, Philadelphia, Mexico (five times), Boston, Houston, and Hawaii. We participated in six global webinars and appeared on 2 podcasts. See our Publications page for more.
We’re looking forward to 2019 and to the promise of increasing our positive impact at Weatherhead, in Ohio, and around the world.
