Ohio University students lead interdisciplinary innovations
Winter Wilson and Faith Voinovich have big ideas for how they can change things for the better at Ohio University and beyond, and they’re spending plenty of time learning how to make those changes happen.
Wilson and Voinovich are the only two Ohio University students to participate in both the Cutler Scholars program and the Stanford University Innovation Fellowship program. The programs individually are dynamic in their own right, but combined, Voinovich and Wilson said they are learning the ideas, training and networks give them the confidence to pursue their goals and succeed.
“The networks from the Cutler Scholars program and the Stanford University Innovation Fellowship program have really helped show what is possible,” Voinovich, a junior chemical engineering major, said.
OHIO’s Cutler Scholars program focuses on identifying students with the intellect and commitment to be future leaders and developing their potential. It creates a culture of collaboration within the Cutler Scholars community with a focus on self-understanding, insight into civic responsibility and the common good, and gaining meaningful exposure to other cultures.
The Stanford University Innovation Fellowship program is designed to help students become agents of change in higher education. The goal is to unlock students’ creative potential and develop the mindset required to take on complex challenges, with a focus on innovation and entrepreneurship. Both programs include students of all majors.
Dr. Margaux Cowden, director of the Cutler Scholars program, said both programs advocate educational environments shaped by creative, entrepreneurial approaches to higher education, including high-impact learning practices such as experiential learning.
“Our program’s founding benefactors, notably Wilfred Konneker, were entrepreneurs trained in engineering and business who believed students would benefit from unique experiential learning opportunities,” Cowden said. “The goal of the Cutler Scholars Program was—and is—to inspire students to take risks and innovate for the common good; to prepare them to tackle complex social problems that demand creative, multidisciplinary responses and collaborative leadership. During their undergraduate education, Cutler Scholars are expected to serve our campus and the surrounding community. As University Innovation Fellows, our scholars have a very unique opportunity to serve OHIO by enhancing the university’s transformational learning environment.”
Ohio University President M. Duane Nellis said the work of the Cutler Scholars and the Stanford University Innovation Fellowship fit well into the University’s mission.
“As a University, we need to do more to incentivize innovative, inter-disciplinary collaborations, such as the ones these students are already working on,” Nellis said. “The efforts of, and results achieved by, these students demonstrate that our young scholars, with support from the University, truly can effect lasting, positive change at OHIO and in the world.”
Voinovich and Wilson, a sophomore majoring in environmental studies and journalism, have certainly kept busy during their time on campus. Voinovich is a student member of the Ohio University Board of Trustees and has participated in the University’s Budget Planning Council. She has also been a key participant in the development of C-Suite, an upcoming center for innovation and entrepreneurship open to students throughout the university looking for resources to pursue projects.
“C-Suite is a central location on campus where students can come in and have all of our innovation resources presented to them in one place. So it’s kind of a one-stop shop for everything that you may need to start a business, to continue an idea, to find like-minded people who want to innovate,” Voinovich said. “Ohio University already has a thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem on campus, but we’re sort of disconnected right now. So we have many resources but all in different areas and most students don’t know about everything that there is to offer.”
Her work with the trustees and on C-Suite has given Voinovich the opportunity to work with all of OHIO’s colleges, she said.
“Making connections across campus has been one of my biggest focuses with C-Suite, and generally it’s not too difficult to show people how innovation ties into their college,” Voinovich said, adding that innovation and entrepreneurship aren’t restricted to business and engineering. “If you can go in and talk to a Fine Arts student and say, ‘All these pieces you’re creating are beautiful. They’re wonderful. Do you want to be able to sell them? Do you want to be able to make money off of this?’ There’s your creative idea. There’s your entrepreneurial idea. You can come into C-Suite and be a part of that.”
Wilson, too, has had plenty of experience working with other colleges. She is active with Student Senate and revived OHIO’s Sierra Student Coalition, with a focus on urging Ohio University to fully divest from fossil fuels, an effort that has been informed by the Stanford program.
“We believe that was really important for the university to divest in fossil fuels and become a leader in sustainability,” Wilson said. “It has definitely informed the direction I want to take our divestment campaign in the future. I really do believe in the ability of students to come together to achieve lasting institutional change, and that’s something that UIF promotes as well.”
Wilson said the Cutler Scholars program has been crucial to her academic development to date.
“The Cutler Scholars program has been incredible. I think sometimes people see it as just a scholarship, but for me it’s been much, much more than that,” she said. “I have a community of people who support me, a community of students that I’m constantly engaging with over these really incredible intellectual conversations.”
Wilson, who learned of the Stanford program through Voinovich, said the University Innovation Fellowship has provided her with key direction.
“I knew I was interested in environmental justice and environmental law, but I wasn’t quite sure how I wanted to go about figuring out my passions and translating that into a career. I think the University Innovation Fellowship program exposed me to these ideas of innovation and entrepreneurship and design thinking that are critical to any major and have allowed me to understand that I can create, design and use the creativity aspect of my passions and my education that I really love and translate that into either a career or working to combat environmental injustice around the world.”
Voinovich has had similar experiences with the two programs.
“The community that the Cutler Scholars program offers has really helped shape who I’ve become at Ohio University. Having a group of people who’s always striving to be their best and really impact change on campus has made it so that it’s not something that is out there or impossible but really something within reach, with easy steps to go about to get there,” she said. “Through having the program here, I’ve had a lot of confidence to go out, reach out and have an impact on campus.”
The University Innovation Fellowship has helped open even more doors for her, she said.
“I was really involved with entrepreneurship when I was in high school, and had started a business, and then came to Ohio University and lost a little bit of that, and I was really looking for a way to bring that back to my experience,” Voinovich said. “Through becoming a University Innovation Fellow and the Stanford program, I was able to reach out and see what was already available on Ohio University’s campus, for innovation, entrepreneurship and creativity, but also expand on that, and bring more to campus so that students like me who were coming in and wanted to keep that a part of their education and their life were able to find it more easily.”
And that’s what Voinovich hopes her legacy at Ohio will become, she added.
“I would love for my legacy at Ohio University to be one of a change-maker, to get people involved and show everyone what is really possible on Ohio University’s campus when you know that your ideas are powerful enough to change the community, to change Ohio, to change the world. If I can inspire a couple of students even to get more involved on campus, share their ideas, and become more active members of the Ohio University community, that would be wonderful.”
Voinovich is in a unique position in that she already knows that one person can make a difference in the world; she watched her grandfather, former Ohio Governor and U.S. Sen. George Voinovich, do it. George Voinovich is now the namesake for OHIO’s Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs.
“With my grandfather and all that he was able to accomplish in his life and his dedication to public service, it’s really helpful to show that one person can make a difference,” Voinovich said. “It’s also nice to see that the balance can come from being involved in a lot of things. He had his life, but he also was really dedicated to my grandmother and his family. That was always important to him and he made time for it. So when I start feeling stressed out about anything, I can look to him as a wonderful example of how you can pull everything together. If you make it a priority, it will happen.”
Wilson said the two programs, along with the Honors Tutorial College, have been instrumental in helping her achieve her goals so far.
“The really neat thing about having the Cutler Scholars and University Innovation Fellowship and the Honors Tutorial College is that I’m creating the education that I love. On one end it might be busy, but it’s a good kind of busy in the way that I’m really learning, expanding my knowledge on all different kinds of subjects. It’s been very, very rewarding so far,” Wilson said.
Voinovich and Wilson are also looking beyond their time at Ohio University for their goals. Voinovich hopes to start her own company that would serve as a sustainable meat alternative company.
“A lot of the substitutes that exist right now are pretty unhealthy still. They have a lot of carbs in there, or are usually soy-based; they’re not really good for you,” she said. “So you’re moving from one meat alternative that’s not the best, but you’re moving to something that’s high in carbs, which is again not the best for you. My goal with that is to use my chemical engineering background to be involved in the food science side of things to create something that is healthy for people so it’s not just switching one unhealthy habit for another, but moving toward a more healthy population.”
For her part, Wilson wants to combine her passions to support environmental justice. She intends to go to law school after her time at OHIO.
“I’m really interested in environmental justice and how those who are least affected by climate change are contributing the most, and those who are most affected are contributing the least. I am interested in environmental law, but also through this University Innovation Fellowship program really interested in product design and social innovation and design,” she said. “The moonshot idea or the end goal of all of this would be to be able to create my own organization that would incorporate environmental justice and product design, environmental law as sort of an advocacy for those that have voices but are not able to be heard as well.”
Both say the Cutler Scholars and University Innovation Fellowship programs are giving them the tools they need to accomplish their goals.
“The University Innovation Fellowship program has really allowed me to recognize the leadership traits that I hold and the things that I’m able to contribute to a group, but they’ve also allowed me to recognize that I have the potential to be a powerful agent of change for good in the world, whether it’s on campus or after my undergraduate experience,” Wilson said.