School:Trinity College
Promoting student innovation and entrepreneurship
At Trinity college, students are encouraged to explore their entrepreneurial potential and innovative thinking through a wide range of programs, courses, and extracurricular opportunities.
Trinity offers students two experiential certificates in Innovation and Entrepreneurship (I&E), providing a path for those who are interested in developing skills in these areas. One certificate focuses on Entrepreneurship, while the other centers on Innovation. In addition Trinity owns an Innovation Hub in downtown Hartford, it is an open collaborative space available to all students.
The college also support I&E through organization and early engagement programs. There is an Entrepreneurship Club, where students can connect with peers and work on business ideas. Trinity’s entrepreneurship orientation program introduces first year students to the Entrepreneurship Department, ensuring that even those new to the campus have an early opportunity to learn about the resources available to them.
For those seeking more involvement, Trinity offers the Tyree Innovation Fellowship to first year students. This fellowship is a 2 year program that is designed to equip students with the essential skill to develop both entrepreneurial and innovative thinking. Students in this program are immersed in opportunities to enhance their abilities to solve problems, think creatively, and launch new ventures, providing them with the experience needed to succeed in a rapidly changing world.
Beyond these prograsms, Trinity offers a wide rage of courses that promote innovation and entrepreneurship. Classes suchj as Engineering Entrepreneurship, Create, Invent, Innovate, and Concept to Prototype: Building Through Iteration. These classes provide students with hands-on-learning experiences. Additionally, students can participate in competitions and events like the Idea Hackathon, the Summit Innovation Challenge, and start-up Weekend, giving them real-world opportunities to pitch ideas, collaborate with peers, and learn from experts in the field.
Encouraging faculty innovation and entrepreneurship
Trinity college has gradually increased its attempts at including innovative methods in the pedagogy of training ‘’bold, independent thinkers who lead transformative lives’’. Semesterly faculty members have come up with novel courses that will teach students to take bold steps that characterizes the liberal arts experience. Examples include the community actions gateway programs in which students design and execute community-based research and social impact projects related to education, housing, economic development, social inequality, etc etc.
Some other courses that faculty have come up in this direction include ‘introduction to prototyping J-Term, hartford consulting project, intro to design thinking which are residues of Trinity current Trinity Plus curriculum.
Despite these advances, there’s still a lot of areas that need improvement when it comes to faculty quota in innovation and entrepreneurship. Some limitations include limited funding for innovation courses, inadequate prototyping spaces, few faculty numbers in innovation and entrepreneurship, lack of a distinct department dedicated towards the course.
Engaging with local and regional economic development efforts
Trinity College's location in the heart of Connecticut’s capital city, Hartford, presents an opportunity to participate in an economy that has been shaped by decades of development and through different economic life stages. Trinity engages locally and regionally through several initiatives including having an open campus that allows economic entities to advertise to residents of the campus community.
The Trinity college Entrepreneurship center in downtown Hartford supports research into companies for the local community. There are enrichment programs run for various partners aimed at sharpening skills of partner employees for better work output. Some recent partners include infosys, hartford healthcare and Connecticut's children.
In addition, the center for hartford engagement and research, CHER, partners has core programs that conduct community research in hartford and form partnerships that corroborates the efforts of local businesses and institutions. The partnership with HMTCA allows students of the inter district high school to enroll in classes and have access to programs such as The Boys and Girls club seamlessly.
Several students and graduates from Trinity take on professions in the regional climate supplying an elite pool of bold thinkers who make measurable impacts in the surrounding economic landscape.
In conclusion, Trinity’s unique mission, economic and geographical location attracts intellectuals from all over the world making it a scholarly hub for the world. The school’s impact has continued to benefit the world in various transformative. However, the new goals set for Trinity’s third century will require a rekindling of more novel and mechanism that significantly expands the Bantam spirit. This is the opportunity for the UIF program to contribute in shaping the world from the beautiful hills Trinity calls home.
Actively supporting the university technology transfer function
Trinity College actively supports and funds research programs on campus through the Research Expense Grant(FRG). These opportunities are a great way for students to collaborate with faculty members and investigate their academic topic of their interest. The Loberg Family wet lab is a lab located in the Life Science building in which many students are encouraged to explore Science in collaboration with their faculties.
Trinity College’s Entrepreneurship Center has different projects in which it encourages students to work on their interest that often brings technology transfer function on campus. Through the Sponsored Senior Capstone Projects, Senior students work with mentors to create solutions and present to sponsors. In this process students learn new skills and experience technical development. Further the Sponsored Alumni Startup Projects creates a space for student teams to collaborate with Alumni to work on their startup ideas.
Moreover, the entrepreneurship center has a different seed funding program for students who are interested in startups. Microgrants, pre-seed and seed grants are some of the funding available on campus.
In addition, Trinity College’s Grants Office supports students who are interested in bringing technology transfer functions on campus. The grants office accessibility allows students to apply for funding for technological initiatives they would like to bring on campus.
Further, The students activities office supports student initiatives including the Entrepreneurship club in which students work as a team on startups or participate in innovation mixers around the Boston area.
Facilitating University-Industry Collaborations
Starting with the Tyree Innovation Fellowship workshops, students have had the opportunity to gain real-world experience through skill-building sessions focused on business-related fields. Affectively partnering with the Career Center, students explore their interests, identify their unique strengths, and build confidence in their professional abilities. Through summer internships, students enhance their professional skills and foster self-discovery, as they gain firsthand experience and develop their entrepreneurial abilities. The Tyree Innovation Fellowship further supports this journey by providing mentorship from seasoned corporate volunteers and networking with industry experts. The Bantam Business Directory adds another layer of support by connecting students with alumni companies, enabling them to explore various career paths.
This year, the tech edge program was unfortunately canceled, but there is hope it will return next year. It is a highly valuable initiative that engages students in a unique learning experience. With real life technology exposure provided by professionals from Infosys. The programs includes access to summer internships in the Hartford area and the option to interview for these positions.
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