USC is home to many centers of innovation, including the USC Stevens Institute for Innovation, the USC Lloyd Grief Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, the USC Viterbi Student Innovation Institute, the USC Annenberg Digital Innovation Lab, and more. With the inception of the latest USC Jimmy Iovine & Young Academy, USC is pushing the boundary of innovation in the arts, business, and technology industries. We hope this can extend to all the other USC schools as well.
= Student Priorities<br/>= == '''Project Pitch VideoFocus #1 - Strengthen the relationship between USC alumni and students, especially in careers of entrepreneurship and innovation'''<br== USC prides itself on having a strong alumni network, and as students, we’ve all been told that reaching out to alumni is a great way to network and build relationships. Especially in the world of entrepreneurship and innovation, having a support system and mentors is crucial for success. Thus, we want to help bridge the gap between alumni and students and work with the Alumni Network (Alumni Society /> =Society53) on campus.
[insert YouTube link]Alumni also will have the opportunity to listen to aspiring entrepreneurs and support in their ideas. We envision either a panel of alumni speaking to students on campus or coming to judge potential design springs and conferences held on campus.
== '''Focus #2 - Improve USC spring admit and transfer student university integration.''' ==
From speaking with fellow classmates who are either spring admit students or transfer students, their one comment on how USC can improve often resolves to their own welcoming experience (or lack thereof). Fall admitted students go through a series of activities and special welcoming events that best integrate them into the student body and onto campus. The later admitted students however experience prejudice as to their time of admission, and are not readily provided for or accommodated in onboarding to USC.
= Student Priorities<br/> =We should create a series of USC student-led mini-families or “pods” with new students from all over the university meeting other new students and visiting LA together or relying on each other for advice. These could be organized each semester for transfer students that come in the fall and spring, and will definitely accommodate spring admits in the spring. Being able to bond with other students in similar situations as themselves can already alleviate the pressure of entering college alone and with the challenge of making new friends. This could be easily introduced during transfer student orientations, where we can develop a tailored orientation program facilitated by peers that cover important aspects of their new school such as:
== '''Focus #1 - Create a product thinking major, minor, or course for students Introduction to learn more.''' ==campus culture
USC has so many resources in innovation, design, engineering, business, and entrepreneurship, but it lacks a centralized program of thought for students interested in pursuing product design or product development as a whole. Product design should not be limited to mechanical engineering design principles. In fact, I think that product design has a much more anthropological aspect that we tend to forget about. The mixture of understanding how to design for a user and what to design for a user would make a Product Design major, minor, or at least a new course at USC highly beneficial to students.<br/>This program could be modeled after existing Product Design courses in the US, such as Stanford’s, but take a more business and human-centric approach to the process of product conception. Maybe it could even be called Product Conception.<br/>I expect the major path to draw knowledge from the following schools at USC, and to provide students with the relative skills mentioned below:Transfer Credits
*Roski School of Art**Visual design, 3D modeling, art theory for aesthetic product design*Annenberg School of Communication**How we perceive products in the media and what cultural backstory influences their success. The role of communication in influencing a product’s development.*Viterbi School of Engineering**Engineering and CS fundamentals for structural systems design and essential software architecture principles, object-oriented design*Dornsife College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences**Anthropology lessons and insights on human reasoning and human value**Cognitive science to understand human cognition and reasoning*Marshall School of Business**How to design a product for the market and assess feasibility*Lloyd Grief Center for Entrpreneurial Studies**Understanding what makes a product successful entrepreneurially*USC School of Architecture**Maybe some indication of product through architecture*Visual arts components**USC School of Cinematic Arts**USC Thornton School of Music**USC Kaufman School of Dance**What makes art or the entertainment industries essential to product design and vice versa?Work opportunities
<br/>I’m sure we could incorporate more schools, and have this major be as interdisciplinary as possible. It’s important to emphasize Human-centric design and how the typical user in each industry is different and has different values.Financial aid
== '''Focus #2 3 - Improve USC spring admit Spread entrepreneurial thought across campus to different students (from varying backgrounds and transfer student university integration.majors)''' ==
From speaking with fellow classmates who are either spring admit Our goal is to break down the idea of entrepreneurship to be more approachable and accessible, especially for students or transfer outside of the Marshall School of Business. As studentswho come from diverse backgrounds and schools, their one comment on how USC our hope is more individuals realize that design thinking and problem solving can improve often resolves be applied to their own welcoming experience (or lack thereof). Fall admitted any field of students go through a series of activities and special welcoming events that best integrate them into the student body and onto campus. The later admitted We want to empower students however experience prejudice as to their time of admission, take want they are passionate about and are not readily provided for or accommodated in onboarding to USCbecome “entrepreneurs”.
We should create a series realize that not every person at USC has the resources and support they need to actually fully ideate, prototype, and execute their ideas and that leads into another focus of USC studentours -led mini-families or “pods” with new students from all over the university meeting other new educate students and visiting LA together or relying on each other for advice. These could This will be organized each semester for transfer students that come in the fall and spring, and will definitely accommodate spring admits in the spring. Being succession to us being able to bond with other students in similar situations as themselves can already alleviate the pressure of entering college alone outreach and with the challenge of making new friendsspeak to these diverse groups.
== '''Focus #3 4 - Foster better entertainment entrepreneurship activitiesEducate students and provide resources about the design thinking process''' ==
USC has so many entertainment industry resourcesDesign thinking is a human-centered approach to learning, but lacks in entertainment entrepreneurshipcollaboration, and problem solving that begins with developing empathy for those facing a particular challenge. The introduction In practice, design thinking serves as a structured framework that helps us to define problems, empathize with others to gather information, develop prototypes of the new SCA Entertainment Industry minorpossible solutions, and hone those prototypes through multiple iterations until they have generated a viable solution to the existence of the Business Administration (Cinematic Arts) major here challenge at USC are stepping stones in the right direction (also the Game Entrepreneurism minor in SCA), but there lacks similar resources in the USC Thornton School of Music and the USC Kaufman School of Dancehand.
I’ve reached out to initiate Design thinking can be flexibly implemented; encouraging a partnership between USC bias towards action and The Black List, a prominent script database exclusively open because of its nature regarding rapid prototyping, frees up practitioners to embrace the notion of failing forward as it is alright to industry members and screenwritersmake mistakes - that’s where breakthrough ideas are born.
I will continue to better understand what types =Related Links=[http://universityinnovation.org/wiki/University_of_Southern_California University of student organizations or industry partnership or events could help USC entertainment students become more entrepreneurially active.Southern California Page]
== '''Focus #4 - Organize another TEDx USC experience that highlights our school’s strengths and partners with local startups[http://universityinnovation.''' ==org/wiki/University_of_Southern_California_Student_Priorities University of Southern California Student Priorities Page]
We need to organize another TEDx event for USC that brings the best of USC’s schools and students and introduces them to the brilliant industry members leading change in our local LA startups, companies, and research centers. By bridging the gap between academia and industry, we could hopefully inspire students to invest in thinking about the application of their studies to the future of our industry and workforce.[[Laura Gouillon]]
I’m excited to start working on this and to start interacting with University officials to better understand how we can organize our existing resources into a more relevant and coherent major for product-focused individuals in various disciplines.[[Category:Student Priorities|u]][[Category:Student Priorities]][[Category:Student Priorities]][[Category:University_of_Southern_California]][[Category:Student_Priorities]]{{CatTree|University_of_Southern_California}}