Priorities:Susquehanna University Student Priorities

Overview

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Susquehanna University is a private liberal arts college located in the town of Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania. Susquehanna University is dedicated to helping students become proactive leaders through academics, service, and personal assets, which is represented through the University motto “Achieve, Lead, Serve”. Susquehanna allows students to engage and facilitate conversation through our clubs and organizations as well as our Global Opportunities (GO) program, which connects students with the world by establishing a GO academic requirement. While there are opportunities for innovation and entrepreneurship, such as the Entrepreneurship and Innovation minor, the university has room for improvement. 

One of the biggest challenges that Susquehanna faces is the lack of collaboration between the Sigmund Weis Business School and the School of Arts and Sciences. Students focus on individual departmental disciplines and associate the words "entrepreneurship" and "innovation" strictly with business. The main objective of our University Innovation Fellows Leadership Circle is to implement more innovation and entrepreneurship programs on campus and promote interdisciplinary collaboration.

Spring 2015 Pitch -  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6fupPb51eI

Fall 2016 Pitch -  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhbBjd26XYA

Student Priorities

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STRATEGY ONE: PARTNERSHIP WITH UNICEF

Partner with UNICEF and implement the Innovation in Education campaign on campus.

• Collaborate with UNICEF and the campus initiative.
  • Innovation in Education Campaign.
  • Ideal Start-up date - Fall 2019.
• Integrate Innovation in Education Campaign on campus to raise awareness of the needforinnovation and entrepreneurship programs on campus at the local and global level.
  • Focus on Innovation and or Entrepreneurship as an interdisciplinary focus.
  • Grow exposure of the Entrepreneurship and Innovation minor on campus.
  • Encourage local awareness of Innovation in Education and plausible solutions.
  • Facilitate global awareness of Innovation in Education and plausible solutions.
• Develop a continuity plan to sustain Innovation in Education Campaign on campus in future years to create stability and longevity of the plan.
• Identify resources and funding available to students, faculty, and staff.
  • Funding for students working with campus initiative on innovation projects on and off campus.
  • Publicize funding, stakeholder assistance, and global outreach to maintain campus-wide participation.
  • Connect with student leaders on campus with a focus in philanthropy work
    • Greek Life and philanthropy organization collaboration.

STRATEGY TWO: INNOVATION IN EDUCATION

Eliminate innovation and entrepreneurship disciplinary stigma to encourage innovation other academic fields to maintain interdisciplinary collaboration.

• Understand current underrepresentation of academic disciplines on campus and incorporate new innovative solutions for departmental engagement.
• Create events catered to various disciplines, such as the arts, to encourage creativity and original thinking on campus.
  • Hold campus events to showcase student creations and ideas.
• Utilize on-campus creative spaces to raise awareness of such design spaces.
  • Encourage use ofnew makerspace to facilitate conversation and hold events in the new establishment.
  • Speak to the first-year community about creative spaces and encourage discussion.
• Involve local community with makerspace to collaborate and discover solutions the local community would like to see implemented in relation to underrepresented programs.
  • Collaborate with the local community to encourage recognition, participation, and innovative solutions in academic disciplines.
• Bring organizations to campus to understand current problems in innovation in other academic fields of study.
  • Identify needs on campus and collaborate with local partners to create innovative events pertaining to underrepresented fields of study, such as the arts.
  • Engage local businesses to help students see innovation as a constant process and not commodity based.

STRATEGY THREE: DIVERSITY IN THE ARTS SHOWCASE

• Create an event on campus to facilitate innovation and diversity in the arts.
  
  • Art showcase.
• Establish an art showcase to show different forms of artistic medium and creative design processes.
  • Art Works
    
• Host small group collaboration projects between art departments.
  
  • Individuals from the creative writing department write a creative piece (poetry, short story, etc.) and other individuals from the design or painting department paint about the creative piece or vise versa.
• Create a 24-hour innovation and design event.
  
  • Students create and design original pieces of art for the first few hours, practice and critique next few hours, perform and showcase creative ideas the last few hours.
  • We have a 24-hour play festival. How can we inspire creators to invent and create original works in 24-hours too?
• Host event where students learn how to work through the creative process and students and or faculty in various art departments can facilitate workshops.
  • Campus-Wide Art Workshop (critique event and how-to innovate and create event)

STRATEGY FOUR: IMPLEMENT INNOVATIVE HEALTH STRATEGIES

• Bring movement to students: install walking desks on campus (treadmill with desk attached, enabling students to exercise and study simultaneously)
  • Start with a few in the library and/ormakerspace, eventually have more in academic buildings
• Increase student input regarding dining/cuisine options througheasierfeedback mechanism
• Partner with Aramark to increase culinary education events on campus
  • Opportunities for students to learn how to cook through Adulting 101-Sessions and Residential Life Community Programs
• Launch color system at dining locations: red, yellow, green for healthiness level of food options to giveperspectiveof ratioof healthy to unhealthy options and encourage healthy behavior

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Related links

Cohort Change Story Platform (Fall 2017)

https://www.facebook.com/SusquehannaUIF/

Pitch Video (Fall 2016)

Pitch Video (Spring 2015)

Susquehanna University Student Priorities

Susquehanna University - University Innovation Fellows

2015 Fellows

Ethan Eastwood  (Spring 2015)

Alexis Gargin  (Spring 2015)

Pierce Logan Perkins  (Spring 2015)

Tiffany Richards  (Spring 2015)

2016 Fellows

Hana Feiner (Fall 2016)

Aviel Stein (Fall 2016)

Rachel Tate (Fall 2016)

2017 Fellows

Tonia Hall (Fall 2017)

Alexandra Haller (Fall 2017)

Damian Munoz (Fall 2017)

Daniel Yim (Fall 2017)

2018 Fellows

Leah Cieniawa (Fall 2018)

Brianna Murphy (Fall 2018)

Joseph Morante (Fall 2018)

Kyle Williams (Fall 2018)