Overview

Loyola University Maryland, founded in 1852, is a liberal arts university located in Baltimore, Maryland. The Evergreen campus is the main undergraduate campus. Surrounded by a diverse and booming environment the potential for innovation and creativity is high. However, as of present, the resources for such ventures on Loyola’s campus are limited. Creative space for design thinking, prototyping, and research is not established yet, except for limited lab space reserved for the engineering students. Some courses are offered in the entrepreneurship and innovation field but expansion and improvement is needed. With multiple cohorts of University Innovation Fellows campus, we are excited and motivated to improve these aspects of our campus. With many creative and inspired minds on campus these resources, we strive to benefit students across disciplines and majors.

Fall 2021 Student Priorities

Loyola is a place where students can learn new opportunities and gain new perspectives. Through our different prototypes, we are working on expanding the opportunities and giving Loyola students a better college experience.

Strategy #1- Create start-up events for Loyola students to attend

We found that there are not many opportunities for Loyola students to take part in start-up events. We decided to poll students from various majors to gage the overall interest in such events. We found that many students are interested in events such as these and would be interested in attending. We also found that there are numerous amounts of start-up events in the Baltimore area. We believe it is very feasible to create events like these on the Loyola campus, or make it possible for Loyola students to attend off campus events. We found that there was less interest in weekend long events or even some events off campus, so it would be ideal to bring these events to the Evergreen campus. We believe these start-up events could be an excellent experience for the Loyola students and serve students from various majors and minors. Overall, we believe the interests in such events is great and would be a great addition to our university.

Strategy #2- Host continuous information and Update sessions on I&E events on campus

In response to the low exposure the I&E dpt has, we decided to survey students to know how many knew about the minor that is offered. Results on the survey showed that most students did not know Loyola had a I&E minor and wished they had been given more information. Through further investigation we found out that these students were highly involved in our community and would like to learn skills to further develop programs and ideas. We now understand that we must increase exposure to this major as it could be used as a bottleneck for future cohorts of the UIF team at Loyola.

Strategy #3- Reach out to other organizations on campus to incorperate I&E into other organizations

We discovered that many organizations, such as clubs, honors societies, and affiliate organizations already apply the principles of I&E but many do not know about the further resources on campus. Partnering with other organizations will not only get the word out about UIF but also help other clubs further their goals.

Strategy - #4 - Get Admin Involved

As a team we created an email template for if we ever need to ask important members of the administration for funding for our project. By selling the University Innovation Fellows and our message of spreading innovation in little ways on campus, we found it easy to ask for help from the school. A deep relationship with the administration is key to executing our plans as a team effectively. taking the time to carefully build a good lasting relationship with our schools institutions and students are a high priority for us.

Fall 2020 Student Priorities

Loyola is a place where individuals are offered hand-on opportunities to get real-life experience. As a cohort, we are focusing on that aspect of Loyola by creating projects that heighten student opportunities. In doing so we hope to make the community better through innovative problem solving and research.

Strategy #1- Research Revamp

While there are plenty of opportunities to conduct research on campus, many students are unaware of them. We believe that advertising should be improved, so that more students become aware of the opportunities provided to them. We also realize the importance of engaging and educating the first-year students in the importance of innovation. Therefore, we are proposing as a UIF cohort, that our main focus be dedicated to a Research Revamp. The Research Revamp will be focused on giving the existing research office a greater presence on campus through social media and on-campus advertising. We would also like to explore the option of getting research interns, similar to the writing center. Therefore, students looking to engage in research opportunities can find professors to connect with as well as getting help with proposals. Further, the research intern can explore grants that students and faculty can apply for to receive funding for their projects.

Strategy #2- Social Media Research Presence

As a cohort, we recognized during the landscape canvas that many students do not know about the many resources Loyola offers. For instance, we found many resources on campus that we have not even heard of or seen. To address this issue, we aim to focus on broadening the social media presence for student opportunities related to innovation, research, and design-thinking. This includes having weekly postings on Twitter and Instagram to educate students.

Strategy #3- Using ID Scanners for Loyola's Transportation Services

One of the UIF's responded to the application prompt "how would you innovate on campus" with a safety concern. Specifically, safety on the shuttle system. While this is not the main focus of our initiatives as a cohort, we feel confident in our ability to address both the Research Reboot as well as Shuttle Safety. To address this issue, we would like to propose a swipe system to enter the shuttle. This way we can ensure that only Loyola students, and staff are riding the shuttle.

Strategy #4- Sophomore Capstone

Over the course of the first semester ,students will learn about problems in Baltimore and resources available to them on campus. During the second semester students will be placed in groups and use their knowledge of resources on campus to come up with a solution to a problem they see either on campus or in the Baltimore community. The program can be beneficial to any major.

Please check out our change story video to learn more

Fall 2019 Student Priorities

Loyola is a place where we came, not only to get an education, but to learn and grow as individuals. Through these strategies we are trying to focus on projects that connect to mind, body, soul, and energy that Loyola has to offer. In doing so we hope to make the community better through innovative problem solving, and show the importance of I&E in all settings.

Strategy #1- Loyola App

My team and I recognize the importance and necessity for students to connect with others from their class, especially when they might need help with the material when professors aren’t available. Students may also sometimes feel more comfortable approaching their peers when they need or want help with going over what they learned in class. This Loyola Study-Group App would allow students to easily connect with their classmates, or just other students who might need help in the same subject. This app has a lot of potential: students could sign up to say, “I understand this material very well, I am willing to help” or “I need help with this subject.” Students could choose to meet with those who understand the subject, or those who don’t so they can bounce ideas off each other. While we do have The Study on campus (a place where students can receive free tutoring), this app would serve to be a much more casual, meet-up concept.

Strategy #2- Bandana Outreach

After completing our campus landscape, I noticed that there are few resources on campus for mental health other than the counseling center. There is a stigma surrounding mental health, so it did not surprise me that the lack of resources around campus reflected that. However, this needs to change because many college students struggle with mental illness and are ashamed or do not have the means to get help. I then reached out to a friend that attends Rutgers University because I recalled him telling me about a mental health program that his campus recently implemented. The program is called the Bandana Project, where students tie green bandanas on their backpacks and carry around resource cards with information about mental health resources on and off-campus. In order to implement this project at Loyola, we would need a decent amount of students willing to be mental health advocates, with the hope that students would feel comfortable turning to their peers in times of need. The Bandana Project would enable those struggling with mental illness to get the support they need, along with build a closer campus community.

Strategy #3- Using QR codes to find class/events/rooms

After the landscape we noticed that a problem for new students, students that have most classes in one building, or families/prospective students have difficulty getting around. While our campus is relatively small compared to other universities, our buildings are oddly organized, and each building has a different numbering system. The QR codes would be placed around campus and allow whoever is lost to connect to a simple or VR map. The VR map would not only shows you where to go, but noticeable landmarks- so there is confidence when entering the space. This would promote attendance at events and would help the Loyola community to utilize the all available space around campus.

Strategy #4- Withdrawl App/Support

Our Vape Addiction and Quitting mobile application prototype is something that can help a lot of students at Loyola. A large portion of the student body vapes but now they won't be able to buy them anymore because they are under 21. Many of the students will try and want to quit but they are unable to because they don't know how to. Our app will guide college students through the process and road to quitting vaping. In our video prototype, a student actor was saying that he wants to quit but doesn't know how to. Another actor goes up to him and says, "hey use this new college student quitting app which can help you through the process and gives tips". This app can help many students become healthier as they have a quitting app that guides them through the process of withdrawal and quitting.

Please check out our change story video to learn more

Fall 2018 Student Priorities

Innovation and Entrepreneurship are not well known as something that Loyola supports. Innovation and Entrepreneurship have increasingly become more important on campus over the past three years, resulting in a new minor and maker spaces around campus. However, the majority of our students do not know that this exists or that they have the option of going along this route. They have never heard of the University Innovations Fellows or these resources in general. Our cohort decided that we should expand upon the resources that are already here as well as making these resources more well known.

Strategy #1: Allowing for Monthly Meetings with Stakeholders Once a Month, Accessible for All Students

The hosting of meetings once a month with prominent faculty members to make them accessible to all students.
The formation of committees of faculty members interested in innovating specific facets on campus: sustainability, technology, etc.

Strategy #2: Expand our innovation minor to an Innovation and Entrepreneurship major

Offering classes on design thinking and brainstorming and problem-solving
Offering classes on owning a personal business and innovating policies/programs that are already in place
Offering classes on how to make changes on campus or in the workplace
This major could be part of the Sellinger School of Business

Strategy #3: Housing Students Based on Interest

Create a community based around certain interests that allows students to be creative and collaborative
Reorganize the housing system on campus to live with others that hold similar interests but come from different majors
Upgrade common spaces in the dorms to account for different interests such as innovation, entrepreneurship, sustainability, etc.

Strategy #4: Creating an after-school program that integrates all majors for the Baltimore community

Design a club that has one overall theme
Create a partnership with local emlemntary schools from around the area and bring our club to their school
The club will have one theme, for example Robot Roadtrip
At the weekly meetings we we focus on writng, history, science, math, and reading
The club will not only unify the majors on campus but will demenstarte to the school children that all subjects are important and are needed in every major.

Spring 2018 Student Priorities

In the beginning of the second semester, one of our cohort members had a problem: he was looking for the Writing society’s event on Social Media and Rhetoric but he forgot where the event was being held. After running around the Humanities Building and checking every Loyola website he could think of, he realized that only place the event was advertised was on a poster outside Boulder Cafeteria. Running back across the main quad, he found the poster and made it to the event (in Maryland Hall) just in time.

After reaching out to friends and classmates, we have realized that this is not an uncommon scenario. We identified the need for a centralized “event board” on campus. Of the many innovations we plan to implement on campus, this event initiative is one of two main projects that we, the 2018 Loyola University Innovation Fellows (UIF) Cohort, plan to roll out over the next year.

Through countless hours of meetings and brainstorming, we have developed many ideas that we plan to implement over the next year. Here, we are sharing two of our most exciting ones: the Content Initiative and the Loyola mobile app. The Content Initiative will bring together a cross-disciplinary group of students, faculty, and staff to ensure that information is effectively transmitted across campus. The Loyola App will be the one place where you can find Inside Loyola, Moodle, and Evergreen account information all together. The app will also provide important campus information such as maps, RA contacts, Campus Security information, and an “Events” page tied in via our Content Initiative.

From sporting events, to pop up classes, to academic programs, to library conferences, to club meetings, to so much more, there are many activities happening on Loyola’s campus each day. Currently, they are advertised via posters, websites, social media accounts, TV screens, and PDFs. With so many disparate sources of information, it can be very hard for students and faculty to find information about the events they want to attend. From the conversations we had during UIF training, we believe that we can streamline the current content streams across campus to create a more collaborative environment where all members of campus will easily be able to discover what, where, and when events are happening.

Our UIF training was instrumental in helping us pinpoint the exact aspects of content distribution that we can improve on campus. We used the techniques mentioned in the Landscape Canvas and the Lean Startup processes to determine the exact need for an accessible resource of finding event information around campus. In a conversation with two members of the Marketing and Communication (MarComm) office, Amy Filardo and David Blohm, we received helpful insights on our prototypes for the Content Initiative. They informed us about the circuitous connection between the Event Services database in 25Live and MarComm’s data used on Loyola’s websites. As we discovered, even though there currently is a master spreadsheet of events, there is still room to integrate this database with MarComm’s. We plan to help facilitate the integration of these services, alongside the creation of our app, and hope to increase the conversations between MarComm and members of Loyola’s campus to better meet the needs of the community.

The other project we plan to implement is the updated Loyola mobile app. Currently, when accessing their accounts from their phones, students have to go through a four-step process to sign in and access Inside Loyola. To find other information, such as Evergreen Card balances, students must leave that website and login again to a different one. As a result of this segmentation, many students do not know how to find such information on the go.

To improve this situation, we propose the creation of a modern iOS app that will cater to both students and visitors to campus. This can build off the previous Loyola app, which provided some of these services but is no longer operations on newer operating systems. During training, we received requests from a multitude of students for this type of system, as they aspire to have a consolidated location for this content. Through a meeting with Loyola’s Chief Information Officer and Executive Director of Applications, we also learned that they are looking to improve this system and we would love to help facilitate this discussion.

These concepts are possible thanks to the help of Loyola’s supportive student body, administrators, and the entire UIF team. We look forward to positively improving Loyola’s campus and are excited to begin collaborating with these groups over the next few months. We hope that these projects will help inspire future innovation on campus, and look forward to seeing the impact that these initiatives will have throughout the rest of our time on campus.

The 2018 Loyola University Innovation Fellows Cohort

Strategy #1: Increase Student Interaction with Baltimore Community

Transportation

Convert some of the on-campus shuttles to have routes off-campus for the weekend so that students have a better opportunity to get into Baltimore and interact with the surrounding community.

Shuttles will have routes to popular locations in and around Baltimore (Inner Harbor, Towson, Fells Point). Routes and destinations will vary, in response to the feedback from students.

Strategy #2: Streamline Technology Resources for Students

Loyola App

Create a centralized, mobile-optimized application for students to access necessary tech offerings on the go.

Provide students with up-to-date push notifications about current campus activities/events/warnings.

Work with Tech Services to build app on top of current systems, rather than require the rebuilding of them.

Strategy #3: Create a Unified Repository for all I&E programs on Campus

Innovation Website

Create an easy-to-use website using Squarespace that will organize all of the out-of-school resources Loyola has to offer (i.e scholarship programs, grants, internships, etc.). The site would also include due dates for applications, direct locations for where/how they need to be turned in, appropriate contacts for questions on the application, and much more. When prototyping, thisas generally well recieved by both students and several faculty member, many of whom were more than willing to help.

Website will be updated by University Innovation Fellows, ensuring that it is relevant each year. Because Fellows already monitor the school's programs to create our landscape analysis, keeping the website updated will not require them to put in too much extra work.

Strategy #4: Give Students the Oppourtunity to Disseminate Information With Each Other

Content Initiative

Increase colloboration between Event Services and MarComm to share information about student events on campus.

Create a bridge with the 25Live database so that other officies can find necessary information from Loyola's master event list.

Encourage communication between SGA and these officies to optomize information disemmination.

Strategy #5: Promote Community Service to Help Students Better Embody Loyola's Jesuit Mission

Promote Awareness of Events

One common suggestion during prototyping was that students often were unaware of the short-term oppourtunities offered by CCSJ and Campus Ministry. Although there is a "Community Service Event Fair" at the start of each semester, students said they often found it hard to find such oppourtunites if they did not sign up for any at the fair. Alongside Strategies 3 and 4, we would like to help complie the oppourtunities from CCSJ and Campus Ministry to help students find oppourtunites they are looking for.

Greater Flexibility in Messina Service-Learning

Some First Year "Messina" courses offer service-learning components that students can join to supplement their education. Some students raised the concern that only giving students one week (at the start of the semester) may prevent students from sufficiently weighing their options in joining this aspect of the course. We would like to help First Years better understand the benefits of signing up for a Service-Learning course so that more students join these benefical oppourtunities.
Students in Loyola's Honors program do not take the 100-level courses which are most likely to offer Service-Learning components to First Year students. Although some of the Honors Messina courses to participate in their own service trips, giving students - and not just those in the Honors program - who are not in designated Service-Learning courses a chance to join actual Service-Learning courses' trips may also increase participation in such events.

Spring 2017 Student Priorities

Strategy #1: Increasing Cross-Discplinary Collaboration while Gaining Transferrable Skills

Student-led Consulting Firm

To maximize undergraduate experience and increase cross-disciplinary collaboration, a group of student possessing technical skills and business acumen would provide business services to fellow students, faculty, and the greater Baltimore community.
The organizational structure of the business is as follows: Directors of Strategy, Technology, and Operations Under these three departments, there would lie associate and senior consultants.
For individuals who would like to join the team, but lack the technical or business acumen for whatever reason, the on-boarding process will require a “how-to” module. As an additional revenue source, and to inspire high school students, this module will be provided at a premium fee.
Based on the early success of the business, there is hope of expansion outside of state [Maryland] lines. Furthermore, to ensure fluid transfer of powers, there will always be a director-in-training
Tenative launch date: Fall 2017

Strategy #2 GENERATING INTEREST FROM THE STUDENT BODY AND FACULTY

Repair Cafe

The space provides a low risk environment for students to gain basic knowledge of tools and innovation processes. The space will curate a basis for the I&E platform to take off on campus.
This is a space/event that will take place on a monthly, bi-monthly, or semester basis
In two to three weeks funding for the first event should be discussed and the idea should be presented to the appropriate deans and stakeholders.
By March 15, 2017 the date for the first Repair Cafe event should be picked and participants from the greater Baltimore area should be contacted.

Pitch Competition

Running in through the Sellinger School of Business
Name: "Building a Better World Through Business"
Date: Late March 2017

TedX/ Smaller Speaker Series

In order to spark inspiration and passion in Loyola's undergraduate population we will setup an annual TedX event on Loyola's campus
- An appliaction for TedX license has been submitted and another should be submitted as soon as possible
However, creating TedX events often take many months. In the meantime we would like to set up a smaller speaker series at various locations around campus.
- By the end of February the first date and location for the speaker series should be chosen
- The first speaker should be contacted (can be Baltimore professional, teacher, or student) by mid-March.
- PechaKucha event may also be considered

STRATEGY #3 CREATE A COLLABORATIVE SPACE TO GIVE STUDENTS THE ABILITY TO PROTOTYPE THEIR CREATIONS AND TO INSPIRE OTHERS

Design Space

A design space would allow students to gather and share, collaborate, and inspire, and be inspired by meeting with peers to tinker with prototyping objects such as building blocks, post it notes, 3-D printers, and more. In order to establish this space there are some items of importance to consider and their target dates:

Discussing possibility and opportunity with university administration (February 2017)
Conduct further market research (May 2017)
Settling on a location and creating a legitimate floor plan (May 2017)
Begin renovations (Spring 2018)
Renovations complete (September 2018)
Facility opens to the student population (October 2018)

Strategy #4 Promote entrepreneurial research projects by faculty - across all disciplines

While this priority is largely above the UIF team, it is not completely out of reach to influence. By making the I&E mission and environment more present on campus more faculty will become intrigued. By creating a council of professors and faculty, from all disciplines, the UIF team will also get all the schools involved and spread the word.

Strategy #5 Promote tech advancements and usage across campus

Pop-Up Classes

In order to teach individuals more about specific technology and give them the tools to properly use it the UIF team will build off the already existing pop-up classes.
The pop-up classes have already been held for 3D printing, resume building, and music editing technology.
By the end of February a survey should be sent out to the Loyola community to discover what technology/ classes they are interested in.
By the mid-March these statistics should be used to form the first student-promoted pop-up classes

Priorities:Loyola University Maryland Student Priorities

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