Fellow:Connor Smith

 

Connor M. Smith is a University Innovation Fellow and an undergraduate in Mechanical Engineering at the Colorado School of Mines (Mines). While also working on a minor in public affairs through the McBride Honors Program, which is the mini liberal arts college at the primary STEM-focused school. Connor was born and raised in Lakewood Colorado which is a whole 20 minutes away from the college, but he wanted to go to Mines since he was little. 

At Mines, Connor made it a point to join as many things as possible, then widdled down to things that truly interested him. He worked as a campus event planner, Teaching Assistant for the Thorson First-Year Honors program which is an alumnus for, Research Assistant for the Trefny Innovative Instruction Center, and attended the ASEE, IACRUH, and NACRUH conferences for the school. Now he is working his second year as a Resident Advisor, for student government as a class representative, with AIAA to bring aerospace interest to campus, and working on his Grand Challenge Scholars Program pillars.

If you ask him, Connor will say he has two passions in life: creation and people. Creation is what made him tinker with everything he could get his hands on and pursue an education in engineering. People are what keep him going through even the hardest of times and why he involves himself with positions that require interaction. Both these interests lead him to innovation and found him with the UIFs on his campus, where he opens to help catalyze change on his unique campus with the legendary group of change-makers.