This is the first time Elizabeth City State University has been involved with Stanford University's Innovative Fellows Program. Although we couldn't reach out to past fellows, we were able to seek advice from various students and staff on campus. We took into consideration their comments when going forth with our proposal. After the Stakeholders meeting, we were referred to people within the business department who could grant us advice on moving forward. Students also gave their perspectives on our idea. Although a modification of our idea had already been done they are intrigued by the idea of having it implemented on campus.
2021 talk:Discuss/What Did You Learn
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As the first cohort at Elizabeth City State University, we had to reach out to student leaders instead of past fellows. Luckily our campus is small so the relationship with the student leaders was already established, making it easier for us to establish a meeting where we ask for their feedback and perspective on our project. We found out from their advice and experience being on campus, that our project feeds into what a lot of the organizations on campus are planning which is innovation and entrepreneurship. The only thing with our idea that separated us from the organizations is we sought the benefit of I&E for all majors and not limited to only the majors that already express I&E.
We were able to speak with past Fellows several times throughout the Training process. Some of the most important feedback they had was truly understanding what student needs are as campus climate can change very quickly. Also, a major piece to factor in was considering students and their time limitations as our school is extremely demanding so creating initiatives that can either aid in their workload or other stressors - ie. job search - were clear front-runners to successful and meaningful implementation.
By speaking with past fellows we were able to grasp a better sense of UIF and its purpose. We were also able to gain an idea of what to expect for the stakeholder meeting and how to make the most of the event. We were told that the stakeholders would be receptive and open to our ideas, but they would be hesitant in terms of being held accountable. Furthermore, the fellows said that after the meet-up they had a rough time staying motivated to continue their idea.
When we met with previous fellows, one of the biggest things that stuck out to us was sustainability. Many of the fellows created projects that made an impact while they were on campus, but looking at campus now, these projects no longer exist. It was sad to hear the fellows excited about the projects they had created without knowing that their projects disappeared once they left. We decided we really need to think about how what we do can be sustainable.
This is such an important thing that has been emphasized for my team so much by our Faculty Champion. That what we are doing now, we want to think big but know that we will most likely have to start small. When we talked, we were given the advice to start small and grow slowly so that by the time we graduate and leave our university, our project and ideas are too big and too far along to stop. This also of course means working hard while we are here to get as far along as we can, and being mindful of what is logically able to sustain itself. It is also important to let other people in on your project to gain excitement and traction so that they may continue it after you are gone.
This was the advice from the previous cohorts that most stuck with me. A lot of students at our university (or people in general) like to complain. So if you want to know, what they want to change, ask what motivates them. Don't ask what bothers them, bc a lot of people like to let off steam, but they don't actually have ideas or want to contribute to our change mission.
My cohort is the first UIF cohort at our institution, so we were not able to connect with any previous cohorts. However, we were able to connect with our school's peer leaders outside of UIF, so we got some good information about our school's culture. It was helpful to hear what students thought about enacting projects on campus.
The same with us too. We are the first UIF cohort, so could not interact with any previous fellows from our school. We interacted with the student leaders and the faculty concerning innovation in our college. The main point here was that we were able to connect with the people who already had their ideas running in the market or were in the plans to do so. We even met the people who had guided these entrepreneurs. The best part was listening to how they succeeded and rose from their failures, the way they could continuously innovate their products or services. Their inputs on our ideas will help us polish our ideas further and implement it. We look forward to meeting many people like this.
As we are also the first cohort from our institution, there was no opportunity for us to interact with previous fellows. We spoke to our student leaders, their guides and start-ups at our campus such as salcit technologies, solbots ,jarsh, etc which work on societal development and benefit of mankind. The zeal in them to provide something useful to the society drove them to their success. They also said that everything did not go as planned but they always had a plan B to cope up with the situation. Their journey as entrepreneurs was very much encouraging. We have explained them about our project ideas and they vowed to help us whenever needed. All their insights were very helpful!
We are also the first cohort on our school and we face similar problems. We could only rely on our close friends and our faculty champion for inputs and comments since we can't go to the campus yet. Our faculty champion is so helpful with our projects and gave us a lot of comments to it. But then, we're also a bit struggling with our schedule so we make another plan to do it.
At Santa Monica College, we were also the first cohort and found the process a little intimating and "fuzzy" and we navigated our school's I&E ecosystem for the first time. What we found is that our faculty was more open and excited by our research and facilitation of the Stakeholder Meeting than we anticipated! Without the insight from student leaders or a previous SMC x UIF cohort, we heavily relied on our research, UIF guide, and faculty champion to help guide us in the right path.
After the whole process of contacting people who work at the university, exchanging opinions with our UIGuide and receiving feedback and sharing experiences with our faculty champion and fellows from other generations, we were able to improve our project and the action plan to carry it out. Talking about the stakeholder meeting, we asked other fellows to listen to our presentation, as a simulation, so that they could give us feedback and corrections based on their experiences, and thus improve the presentation together.
True. I learn to empathize better and listen to others to understand what they feel and what they need. The process of connecting with many faculty members, university executive, and friends were such a privilege. It lights up my spirit to contribute to the place where I've grown so much in the past three years. Without UIF, we may not have the access to speak and tell our concerns to those people.
This past week I learned the value in connecting with departments I had never worked with before on campus and go to know about programs that I did not know existed on campus. I also learned the value is building a community of support with departments that also are looking to engage students.
Since a few weeks , I learnt many things. One of the things being I started was being a good listener , inculcating patience within me and making sure I empathize with people and the situations. I established networks and harmonious relationships with my team, peers , faculty and management. I enhanced the ethics, morals, values towards the smallest of things and people. I developed the skills of convincing people trying to buy their time and getting their valuable inputs, opinions and suggestions about various aspects that we covered as a part of training.
When I met with the previous fellows at my university, they imparted on my knowledge and guidance that could have only come from those who have undergone the same training and understood the expectations at stake. It was refreshing to have them by my side for support and guidance and I know I can rely on them for help if I ever need to reach out.
Meeting with different stakeholders and discussing with my teammates, we all realised that we were so focusing on our ideas (solution) that we almost forgot about what problems we were solving. We forgot about why we signed up to this problem. We signed up because we want to solve issues on our campus with ideas. We all look at each other and understand that the problem is what help us coming help with various solutions and improve. We learned that there is one problem but various solutions. As Bruce Paton (faculty champion and entrepreneurial professor at Menlo College) said: "Fall in love with the problem and not the solution." He basically meant that the problem won't change while a solution can. Our team will always have the will to solve issues we discovered on our campus, no matter how many ideas and solutions we will have to come up with.
This phrase really represents me! In the last meeting I had, the professor mentioned me to explore new alternatives to solve the problem I selected, because there isn't enough budget in the university to cover a project like this. At first sight, I though that he was so negative, but after analyze this opinion twice, I partially agree that I can consider other options. The big challenge with this expression is that you have to accept that there will always be another way to do the things, and is your job to look for them. The main recomendation I can do for all the UIF fellows candidates is that as much as you think your idea is advanced, it can still be iterated over so your solution doesn't fail in the end.
Right now, my team and I are the first cohort and we do not have any student leaders because student elections is in the week of october 4.
We kind of struggled with this same problem, being the first cohort at our university. So rather we talked with leaders of various student groups. So we didn't talk with the student government, but (for example) I talked with one of the leaders of the National Society of Black Engineers. It was a good conversation, and it was good to get a perspective of a leader outside of UIF, while still talking about innovation at our university.
Even we are the first cohort of our school. We could not get any chance to interact with previous fellows. So we interacted with the student leaders, guides who are familiar with entrepreneur skills, and co-founders of few startups which are initiated from our school like Robic Rufarm which provides precision agriculture and aquaculture solution. The zeal to bring a change in society was appreciable. Which gave us huge motivation to implement ideas on our campus. We learned a lot from their journey as an entrepreneur. We even explained our ideas they were pledged to help us whenever needed. Hope we meet more people like this.!
