Priorities:University of Saint Thomas Student Priorities

Overview

Our project pitch: Creating a Community-Based Capstone

Offer more Innovation and Entrepreneurship based courses

       -Add Innovation and Entrepreneurship course to core curriculum

-Offer Innovation and Entrepreneurship based courses in more departments

       

Include Innovation and Entrepreneurship learning objectives in existing courses

- Add learning units that address innovation and entrepreneurship

- Gain skills through design projects

Strategy #2: Introduce Start-Up Weekend or Workshop Activities on Camp

Host an Innovation and Entrepreneurship Week in Anderson Student Center for All Students

• Host speakers sponsored by engineering groups such as ASME, IEEE, SWE, etc. 
• Have activities outside of The View at a table such as squishy circuits or quick build activities.
• Host a hackathon on South Campus for all students

Host a Start Up Weekend Design Challenge 

• Create a 72 hour design challenge for students to participate in over the weekend
• Open the design challenge to students across all disciplines 

Offer Workshops throughout the Semester Related to Innovation and Entrepreneurship

• Collaborate with an already existing workshop to incorporate innovation and entrepreneurship
• Host a two hour workshop during convo hour sponsored by an engineering club 

Strategy #3: Increase Department Interaction

• Building a sense of shared enterprise.
• Make teamwork a priority by making it part of the performance management system.
• Build a software that integrates benefits of BlueJeans, Mindly, OneDrive, and LinkedIn to help with:
  • ​Building the perfect team with the qualified skills you need for a project (LinkedIn)
  • Quick and easy 2 way communication (BlueJeans)
  • Laying out Projects (Mindly)
  • Storing and sharing project files (OneDrive)

Strategy #4: Increase Real World Experiences for Students

• Companies with a relationship to St. Thomas host events where students can come and visit their company, experiencing their work environment.

  • Students would be interested in this, as when companies come to visit during club meetings, there are huge turn outs
  • It would be a no-pressure way to explore that environment, helping students with deciding which way they want to travel after they earn their degree
  • This could be beneficial for companies, as the companies could scope out potential employees/interns, especially those that personally reach out to the company at the event.

• Mandatory class for semester long internship

  • This would be a huge way to get experience in the workfield as a class through the university.
  • St. Thomas could make a deal with the company, like if their students get the opportunity to intern part-time for a semester, they don’t have to pay them.
  • The students will learn actual physical skills towards their major that is different than just visiting as a group or talking to a representative.

• Mandatory job shadowing for class with mandatory questions:

  • Students would have to fulfill this to earn their degree, and in doing so, they can experience different places, helping them get a better feel for what they want to do after college.
  • If interested in this person, employers have a direct way of talking to the student without having to go through an application process. It would be a nice way for seeking out interns.
  • This would be more in depth way of learning about not only the company, but the job market, instead of just chatting with someone from the company for ten minutes.

Related Links

Spring 2017 UIF:

Annabelle Hamilton 

Hannah Brodersen

Murad Abduselam

Paige Huschka