Build A Dream Factory: Tips from An Imagineer

by Kaki Flynn

Randy Pausch is famous for the Last Lecture he gave before he passed away in 2008. This talk on time management is the one he thought would be the most popular, since he breaks down the other half of achieving your dreams: hard work.

An example of how he was the master of time management is the Last Lecture book. He was most likely going to die very soon - within months - and he wanted to write that book so that he could leave it as a message for everyone, but especially for his kids. Hyperion agreed to publish it, but Randy needed to find time to get it done.

Randy figured out how to make it happen by dictating the book to writer Jeff Zaslow an hour a day, as Randy rode his bike.

DREAM FACTORY FORMULA:
Inspiration + Work Hard Smart = Dreams Manifested

Disney Senior Sculptor Chuck Williams

Chuck Williams at work. To see more pieces, visit his studio.

by Kaki Flynn // Editor // Jacksonville Mag

Chuck Williams has Madonna to thank, in part, for his career as a professional sculptor that has spanned more than 20 years.

Jeffrey Katzenberg, a high-profile entertainment executive, came across a piece Williams had sculpted. Katzenberg was impressed, and asked Williams to create a life-mask of the pop star for a project he was working on.

Williams nailed the piece, which nailed him an array of jobs with studios such as Warner Bros., Universal Studios, the Cartoon Network, D.C. Comics and Disney.

Visual Revolution

Why graphic novels need to move to the front of the classroom

Kaki Flynn
editor, Jacksonville Magazine

Spider-Man needs to get schooled. iPods, graphic-heavy websites and an influx of news sources from short tweets to "YouTubing" everything has altered the way the world communicates. Many schools, however, are lagging behind in this revolution.

Graphic novels and comic books are a great way to bridge that gap, says Dr. Kate Monnin, who teaches classes on that very subject at the University of North Florida, where she is an assistant professor of literacy in the department of childhood education. "We are living during one of the greatest communication revolutions of our time. We are a global culture which relies on print text and visual literacy simultaneously, and we aren't teaching that," she says.

We talked to George Scribner, one of the Directors of Animation at Disney Imagineering, who agreed. "It's a much more visual world; look at how much The New York Times Magazine has changed. The world we live in consists of so many languages. At Disney World, half our guests don't speak English, so we need to communicate almost everything visually."

Robot Sports: Young Inventors Learn to Save the World While Having Fun

FIRST Robotics Competition Encourages Innovation

by Kaki Flynn



Joseph Bolling (left), Lead Inventor for Team Resistance, with author Kaki Flynn.



The two-car garage at JEA engineer Todd Lovelace's house looks like something out of a Star Wars junkyard, with robots in different levels of assembly hanging from the ceiling, in boxes and in the backyard. This is Team Resistance, a group of 40-plus students that are hustling to get a robot built for the FIRST Florida Regional Robotics Competition at the University of Central Florida.

These students from high schools around Jacksonville have just six weeks to build a fully functioning robot.

"This robot can feel, follow a line on the floor, look for a green circle or a brown square, or navigate towards a target," says Lovelace, who became a mentor for the club in 1996 after students approached JEA (Jacksonville Electric Authority) asking for help.

JEA has been a sponsor ever since, pitching in to underwrite these contests to help pay for the parts needed to compete-valued at around $10,000 every year-because the company understands the value of the skills these kids gain.

"Engineering is fundamental to everything that supports the developed world," says Lovelace. "You need systems that provide fresh water, and ways to dispose of human waste. Engineers design those systems."

FIRST (First in Recognition of Science and Technology) is a national non-profit founded by iconic inventor Dean Kamen, the guy who became famous for coming up with the Segway, but who is also responsible for everything from breakthroughs in water purification systems to solar technology.