# FOLC Fest 2025 explores Principled Innovation, leadership and learning at ASU

### Annual gathering brings together leaders, students to shape the future of education

By Natalie Goebig, ASU News
March 11, 2025

"Principled Innovation is about using our creativity, knowledge and resources to make decisions that ultimately benefit humanity — not just in the short term, but for generations to come."

That's what Nancy Gonzales, executive vice president and university provost, told a crowd of attendees as she kicked off Arizona State University’s Future of Learning Community, or FOLC, Fest.

Now in its second year, FOLC Fest, hosted by the Office of the University Provost, took place Feb. 27–28 at the Omni Tempe Hotel at ASU. Nearly 1,300 faculty, staff and graduate students registered to showcase and explore how ASU’s newest design aspiration, Principled Innovation, enhances student success.

With breakout sessions, research posters, hands-on demonstrations and panel discussions, FOLC Fest served as a hub for collaboration and practical application.

#### Transforming education through bold leadership

Keynote speakers Paul Quinn College President Michael J. Sorrell and ASU President Michael M. Crow reinforced the critical role of ethical leadership and innovation in shaping the future of education.

Sorrell urged educators to step outside their comfort zones, take bold action and prioritize student and community success over personal ambition.

“Nothing great happens from places of comfort. It never has and it never will,” he said.

He emphasized that true leadership is built on service: “I don’t think you should lead people you do not love. If you lead people you don’t love, you won’t make the sacrifices necessary to dream big enough dreams for them.”

Building on this message, Crow highlighted the responsibility of institutions to actively shape the future of education.

“If we can't contribute to that, then we're not going to succeed in our present model. We will fall back to small groups of people making decisions,” he said.

During a student panel, Crow reinforced ASU’s commitment to access over exclusivity, challenging the selection-driven model of traditional universities.

“That’s not in the best interests of the United States if everyone takes that view. So we’ve taken this other view … and so far, it has worked.”

#### Bringing PI into teaching and learning

Beyond inspiration, FOLC Fest equipped attendees with practical tools and strategies to enhance their teaching and learning.

A lunch-and-learn panel, moderated by Pauline Davies, professor of practice in the Hugh Downs School of Human Communication, featured former Provost Teaching Awardees Gregory Broberg, Carolyn Cavanaugh Toft, Heather Bateman and Jennifer Broatch. The discussion examined how PI shapes their teaching and enhances student learning.

Cavanaugh Toft, a teaching professor in the Department of Psychology, shared a simple but effective engagement strategy she picked up from a colleague.

“I send out a ‘Congratulations, you got an 'A' on the test’ email through Canvas, but then I also say, ‘Hey, can you share some information about how you prepared for this test … to help some of your classmates who didn’t do so well?’ It makes the students feel good, and then I take that feedback … and I let students know, ‘Here’s what people just like you in this class did to do well, and you can do it too.’”

The event concluded with a Principled Innovation discovery dice game, an interactive tool designed to spark meaningful dialogue and strategic planning through thought-provoking questions guided by Principled Innovation’s four pathways: moral, civic, intellectual and performance. A digital version of the dice will soon be available through the PI toolkit library.

#### Expanding FOLC Fest

To extend the impact beyond the annual event, a new FOLC Fest webinar series will launch soon at folcfest.asu.edu.

The series will initially cover AI-driven mentorship, virtual reality for deeper learning, ethical AI literacy, game-based learning and student success strategies.

"Adding a webinar series allows us to extend the conversations from FOLC Fest year-round, providing ongoing opportunities for educators to engage, collaborate and implement new ideas in real time," said Danielle McNamara, executive director of the Learning Engineering Institute and FOLC Fest co-chair.

This story originally appeared on ASU News.