Students as change agents: Leveraging students to infuse innovation & entrepreneurship into the campus ecosystem

Abstract

Engineering students have many opportunities to engage in existing co-curricular activities such as robotics clubs and Engineers Without Borders but have fewer chances to create participate and entrepreneurship (I&E) activities. Changing the culture and structures of a campus to provide curricular, co-curricular, and informal opportunities to engage in I&E requires a systemic approach. Engineering students are often an untapped resource for making such a campus-based change. Epicenter, an NSF Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Talent Expansion Program (STEP) center, operates with the mission of empowering US undergraduate engineering students to bring their ideas to life for the benefit of our economy and society. Epicenter conducts research, works with faculty, and through the University Innovation Fellows (UIF) program, has generated a student-led grassroots method for infusing I&E into the university ecosystem. As of February 2016, over 600 undergraduates from 143 institutions have gone through the UIF training. These student participants, known as "Fellows," acquire knowledge of tools, frameworks, program models, and leadership skills to help them develop an entrepreneurial mindset and creative confidence. These skills are systematically applied as they work with students, faculty, and other stakeholders to expand the campus ecosystem for innovation and entrepreneurship. Fellows organize events, develop and secure physical space, contribute to course development, and engage administrators. Many of the Fellows go on to influence the national conversation on I&E by organizing regional events and participating in forums that present at national conferences, such as ASEE, and White House STEM initiatives. The purpose of this study is to explore how to evaluate a student change program in which both students and an institution are effected. Annual surveys suggest both Fellows and their Faculty Sponsors find students to be an effective resource for making campus-based change. Questions this paper will explore include: • How can a student training program define success at the individual and institutional level? • What personal, programmatic, and contextual factors correlate with success?• What is the value to faculty of students as change agents for expanding the I&E ecosystem on a campus?