January 2026 Creative Campus North America Newsletter
- Alan Rodrigues
- 4 days ago
- 4 min read
Welcome to the January edition of the Adobe Creative Campus newsletter!
Begin the new year with inspiration and practical resources to elevate your campus. This edition spotlights innovative teaching, creativity, career pathways, and the latest Adobe updates to help faculty and students thrive.
Academic Innovation Cafe
We’re excited to launch the Academic Innovation Café, a virtual series highlighting creativity, curriculum innovation, and Generative AI in higher education.
Attend our inaugural session on Thursday, January 22, 2026, featuring San Diego State University (SDSU) faculty as they present a reflective framework designed to foster confidence, belonging, and well-being during key student transitions. This session is highly relevant for professionals focused on first-year experience, student success, and student-centered teaching.
AEI Labs are here!
Formerly Adobe Skills Labs, our new *AEI Labs series brings short, product-focused sprints designed to help you create with Adobe Express and Acrobat. Join us for the first AEI Labs session in Jan 2026 to create polished visuals for your work.
*The Adobe Education Institute (AEI) is an annual virtual conference providing Adobe Creative Campus partners and innovative higher education customers with professional development to enhance student engagement and multi-modal teaching with Adobe tools. 2026 conference details are coming soon.
AI updates
Explore the latest research demonstrating how creative and AI skills accelerate student career success. Watch our on-demand Adobe Express + Firefly webinar to discover how leading universities are embracing AI transformation to drive innovation and overcome adoption challenges.
New research on career outcomes with creativity and AI in higher education
Adobe's latest research, conducted in partnership with Edelman, is the first in a three-part series exploring how creativity and artificial intelligence (AI) affect student careers, academics, and campus engagement. Key highlights below:
Students with Adobe skills get hired faster. 72% of alumni with Adobe skills secured full-time jobs within six months of graduation—79% for Adobe Creative Campus graduates.
Early access builds real AI readiness. 86% of Creative Campus students feel prepared in AI literacy, compared to just 63% of students without access to Adobe tools.
Transform coursework into career assets. 93% of early-career professionals highlight Adobe skills in interviews, using class projects as portfolios, presentations, and proof of readiness.
Watch our latest webinar on embracing transformation with AI strategies
Moderator: Justin Hodgson, Associate Professor of Digital Rhetoric at Indiana University
Panelists:
Kendra Ketchum, Vice President, Information Technology and Chief Information Officer at Indiana University
Asim Ali, Executive Director of the Biggio Center for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning at Auburn University
Sheneese Thompson, Associate Professor of Afro-American Studies at Howard University
Panelists advocated for applied AI strategies with strong data governance, human-centered design, and effective instructional integration. The session also addressed inequitable access to AI tools and emphasized transparent communication between faculty and students.
Campus voices
Gain insights from faculty, staff, and students as they share their experiences with Adobe on campus.
Learn how Noah, a Digital Com major at UTSA, prepares professional Behance projects with Adobe Express in record time.
Planet Forward Storyfest submission deadline extended
George Washington University’s *Planet Forward team has extended the Storyfest submission deadline to give you/your students more time to get stories ready! To qualify, stories must be submitted for publishing by the NEW deadline of February 23, 2026. As a reminder, this year's prize is a trip to East Greenland with Lindblad Expeditions.
This guide offers step-by-step instructions on how students can create a winning Planet Forward Storyfest submission.
Enter Storyfest 2026 by submitting a draft here. If you have any questions, email at editor@planetforward.org.
* Planet Forward invites college and university students to showcase impactful sustainability stories through multimedia formats. Winners receive national recognition and an invitation to the Planet Forward Summit in Washington, D.C. As an Adobe Creative Campus, GWU fosters creativity, with many finalists utilizing Adobe Creative Cloud tools such as Adobe Express.
What’s new in Adobe Express
Elevate your projects with two powerful updates:
ChatGPT integration makes it effortless to craft social posts, event invitations, and flyers—just ask, and instantly browse templates, update text, swap images, and adjust colours right from your chat window.
Efficiently import up to 30 PDFs simultaneously, regardless of their origin, and seamlessly convert static PDF documents into layered, editable designs.
Check for details on the newest features available in your favourite Adobe tools
Our new newsletter hub includes our latest newsletter edition along with an archive of those from previous months. Please publish the following link on your institution’s Adobe website to keep everyone informed on the latest from Adobe Education
Best Regards,
Adobe North America Higher Education Team
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