Ohio University students learn the skills to bring innovative ideas to life through the University Innovation Fellowship.
Managed by the OHIO Center for Entrepreneurship, fellows learn how to create positive assets on their home campus. Student leaders have the opportunity to influence the university community as they put their ideas into action.
The University Innovation Fellows program is run through Stanford University’s Hasso Plattner Institute of Design. The goal of the national program is to ensure that students gain the attitudes, skills and knowledge to contribute to the economy.
Ohio University’s 2020 Cohort of University Innovation Fellows are Melissa Damico, Ishan Matta and Laura Ndoigo. The goal of this year’s student cohort is to implement improvements to the online learning environment for all levels of ability and access. The students conducted an institution-wide survey regarding innovation opportunities and spoke with many students and faculty.
The 2020 cohort explained their goals in a video.
“As UIF students, we believe in the power of students and faculty to be change makers and set guidelines based on their experiences,” said Damico, who majors in environmental studies and minors in sociology through the Honors Tutorial College. The student is also a recipient of the 2020-21 Udall Scholarship, and is a Voinovich Undergraduate Research Scholar with the Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs.
Ndoigo, a junior studying mechanical engineering, was motivated to apply to the program for the opportunity to create positive influence within the Ohio University community. She applied for the fellowship during the Spring 2020 semester and underwent an extensive interview process that teaches prospective fellows professional speaking and communication skills.
“The program helps you understand the process of coming up with ideas and finding solutions, people that you need to talk to, and looking at how to make it happen. We utilize prototyping and the systems needed in order to actualize it,” Ndoigo explained, adding that “I hope to make a lasting impact of change.”
The University Innovation Fellowship empowers students to become agents of change at Ohio University. Students undergo training to learn innovation and design-thinking skills, as well as improvement strategies that they use throughout their experience at Ohio University and into their professional careers. The program is open to students of all majors.
“Fellows have a chance to make a real impact here at Ohio University,” said Paul Benedict, director of the Center for Entrepreneurship.
As fellows work on implementing their ideas, they influence people at the university and rally stakeholders. They also have the ability to network with other students from their home university and students in other fellowship cohorts across the country.
“An entrepreneurial mindset and skills like design-thinking are relevant to anyone on campus,” Benedict said.
For Matta, the cohort’s goals reflect a topic of increasing importance – the virtual environment. The Honors Tutorial College student studies finance, business analytics and management information systems. Matta believes that exposing students to design-thinking and innovation skills encourages students to think outside of the box.
“My cohort's goals for while we are in college are to improve online education for students, as well as push for a higher focus on improved education with a focus on student success,” Matta said.
One of the most well-known results of the University Innovation Fellows program is the CoLab. Launched in the fall of 2018, it is designed for creativity and collaboration across the student body.
“A unified, non-major or college specific space on campus for people interested in entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation was something I sought out when I first came to Ohio University. While there were many resources, I couldn’t find anywhere that brought everything together – from the resources in my home college of engineering to business to arts and sciences – so I knew there was a need,” said Ohio University alumna Faith Voinovich, who was named a University Innovation Fellow in 2016.
Voinovich and her cohort chose the development of a central university student innovation hub as their primary goal, working with other OHIO fellows Lori Bentz and Alex Kneier.
“It took a few years, a lot of work, and many, many student surveys and fundraising calls, but I’m incredibly proud that we were able to launch CoLab at OHIO and that it’s lived on with incredible leadership and impact after its founding,” Voinovich said.
Voinovich now works with the Ohio Innovation Fund to promote further entrepreneurship throughout Ohio. The Ohio Innovation Fund works with early-stage Ohio companies and assists in their development.
Empowering programs such as the Stanford Innovation Fellowship allow Ohio University students to learn the tools to make a difference. The hands-on experience that fellows gain equips them with an entrepreneurial mindset. Alumni of the program typically obtain successful careers in the business world, working alongside other innovators and creative people.
Candidates interested in applying for the 2021 Cohort of Innovation Fellows can first apply to the Ohio University Cohort.
Find more information about the program, as well as how to apply, here: https://www.ohio.edu/entrepreneurship/uif.