Changes

There are many ways in which Yale can improve the culture surrounding Entrepreneurship on campus. We have an amazing group of innovators who have plenty of resources available to them, however, one of the biggest issues is that not enough manhours are being put into innovation. This is due to there not being enough time for students who want to innovate, and also there not being enough innovators. The more time that can be put into solving big problems, the more amazing solutions can come out of Yale. I've listed some strategies below, and also described a few things I want to implement immediately on campus 

= Strategy #1: Encouraging Risk Taking by Providing Insurance  =

Making sure to provide a way for anyone, even someone with no experience to get involved is important for getting new students involved, and retaining them throughout their time at Yale. We need to find a way to encourage roles for freshmen and sophomores that will work with their limited engineering skillset and enable them to create without knowing advanced physics or 3D modeling. Perhaps working with freshmen and sophomores as leaders while juniors and seniors help lead but also do the heavy lifting on the engineering front. This encourages big ideas for younger students and gives older students the opportunity to take a deep dive without sacrificing the longevity of a project or club.

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= Strategy #4: Give Students More Time to Create =

Certain classes currently exist that are heavily lab based and involve students playing with arduinos, sensors, and other basic electro-mechanical elements to create projects. At the end of the semester, the class of predominantly freshmen were able to complete and present engineered solutions to a plethora of problems. Working in small 3 people groups, they developed a range of products and projects, simply because they were given the time to do so. If Yale can somehow make students less busy with coursework, they can encourage students to spend that free time innovating. Almost everyone I talked to said they would innovate and think big if they had time to do so.&nbsp;<br/><br/>Google even values this kind of "free time" very highly. Every employee is given 20% time, a time where they can work on thier own ideas that may or many not directly relate to their work. If we consider a student's time, 20% would be a LOT of manhours. 20% is approximately one class per semester here at Yale, and I think that there should be required entrepenuership, innovation, or independent work class. This is a new kind of thinking that should not be left out of a liberal arts education simply because it is new.&nbsp;

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= Strategy #5: Teach Students the Basics of Entrepreneurship<br/> =

Into Micro-economics is the bread and butter of a Yale Education. The class is always taught, and is the fundamental class many Yale students take at some point during their time here. It is a basic overview of rational thinking, and an equivalent style class for innovation would be an amazing move towards completely changing the way our campus looks at engineering and innovation. At a school as traditional as Yale, it is important that we take time to explore the wild possibilities, and many people get locked into a conservative viewpoint early in their time here. There should be a contrast to intro economics, the class that all Yalies want to take, and that will ideally be taught by an engineer.&nbsp;

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= Strategy #6: Increase the Reach of Engineering and Advertise Better<br/> =

Many students on campus will never see the amazing creations that are made in the labs on science hill. the portion of campus is separated from the housing buildings, off to the side by less than 2 blocks, but ends up being a space were not many non science majors venture. Why is it the case that engineers do not present their senior projects to a broader audience than just the engineering students and faculty. Yale has programs such as the Mellon Forum, a student presentation series where people can show their senior research and studies to their peers. This is underutilized by engineers; once the word gets out about projects happening, people will come and want to help.&nbsp;

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