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Priorities:Smith College Student Priorities

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Program Pitch: The Maker Market is platform for students to sell [only] the fruits of their creativity/labor (this could be room decor, room contraptions, gadgets, digital developments, paintings, food, hand crafts, ornamental things, hand-made jewellery or keychains, plants they grew, etc) to other students. This will function as both an opportunity for students to exercise their creative confidence, launch potential start-ups in a safe environment and receive feedback before stepping into the real world, and provide a place for other students to buy cheap, homemade items. The Maker Market will target students in all year levels, with no limit on the amount of students interested. Our market will target two main groups: students interested in learning about running a small business, and students interested in purchasing homemade goods. For students wanting to sell, the market will give them a platform to test their product, receive feedback, and possibly even make sales in a safe, low-risk environment. For buyers, the market will give them a place to buy one of a kind, handmade items. Based on interest in the market, we would reach out to the Design Thinking Initiative or the Student Government Association to see if they would donate materials to use for prototyping. In order to create the Maker Market, we will need to first set up a space for the market, ideally a physical space so that sellers can get in-person feedback on their work. Next, we will start advertising the concept, sending out emails, making posters, and even hosting small meet-ups for creative people to work on their start-ups in a shared space. We will also reach out to the Makerspace club, to see if they would be interested in working with us to create the Maker Market. Ideally, these will generate student interest and start to build a community interested in sharing ideas. While we are not sure of the frequency of the market, we believe that this space will encourage innovative thinking within the student body.

=== Social Entrepreneurship ===

Program Pitch:Proposed Issue: The Conway Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center have four core pillars including innovation, entrepreneurial spirit, and financial education. The 2016-2017 annual report from the conway center shared data on who attends their workshops and courses. 70% of the student enrolled in entrepreneurship under the center have the following majors:  economics, psychology, and math, government, and neuroscience. 11% are undeclared majors and 19% represent the other majors including students whose majors may fall under Humanities or Social Science. Most popular majors for innovation events economics and engineering majors. There is a high concentration of economics students especially participating in events regarding entrepreneurship and innovation and a small percentage of humanities and social science majors participating in these opportunities. The conway center runs independent to any other department on campus and is open to all students of any major or area of interest. Why not all major categories, STEM, Humanities, and Social Science equally taking courses and attending events? The issue proposed is Humanities and Social science majors do not have a significant presence in the innovation and entrepreneurship community at Smith. There could be a number of reasons from the issue with how courses and workshops are advertised to who is included and excluded receiving information.

Program Pitch:  One way representation from Social Sciences and Humanities can increase for innovation and entrepreneurship courses, workshops, and other opportunities is to advertise events and opportunities that would generally interest Social Science and Humanities majors.

Proposal : Create a series that focuses on different aspects of I & E that could appeal to non-traditional Humanities and Social Science Majors Lunch and Learns: Change making in the Innovation and Entrepreneurship world Panels and Info sessions: Social science and humanities Smith alums involved in the world of I & E talk about why these majors matter to the I & E world Storytelling Session: The parallels of storytelling and pitching a business idea Another way is to present different aspects of  I & E Social Entrepreneurship Challenge (multi-major groups) Workshops: Social Enterprises and Benefit Corporations (socially aware and human- centered designs) Design Thinking for Humanities majors

== Strategy 02: Developing resources for post-graduation pursuit of innovative and entrepreneurial ventures ==

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