Instructor Maurice Woods inspires students in each of his Identity courses at Olivet College of Art & Design.  He reminds them the power of design and how it can influence change.  Mr. Woods leads by those words as founder of a professionally supported program called the Inneract Project.

Growing up in an environment that offered limited future options, Maurice understands the current dilemmas existing in today's inner-city communities. Many kids only believe that sports or music is the answer to their future.  Woods changes that perspective though the Inneract Project, where his vision is to help the underserved youth and provide more exposure to the fields in design. 

Maurice Woods graduated with honors from the University of Washington with a BFA and MFA in Visual Communication Design. He played basketball as an undergraduate and professionally worldwide for 7 years after graduation while pursuing a parallel career as a freelance designer.  He teamed up with the UW Graduate Opportunities and Minority Achievement Program (GOMAP) and the Visual Communication department to bring his design skills to the community, developing the Inneract Project.  He also directs classes in San Francisco communities through his position as Education Co-Chair for San Francisco's AIGA Chapter.

Because Maurice has always been interested in using his design skills to enhance self-pride and cultural awareness within the Black community, he envisioned a program that would bring design to the community, not the community to design.

He figured there must be kids in the community who love to draw and create things just as he did as a child, but who may not know about graphic design or other design-related professions. He developed a plan and put it on paper. He then created posters and drove them to community centers throughout the Seattle area.

Maurice's vision began with a free class and 2 students at Western Seattle's Delridge Community Center. Today, Maurice has had classes as large as 30 kids in both Seattle and San Francisco locations. His classes still remain free.

Through his non-profit organization, Maurice and his team have brought value to inner-city youth and their communities through educating them about the power of graphic design.

(Contents used with permission from www.inneractproject.com)