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<span id="docs-internal-guid-c0e8b669-5172-c625-e06a-7cea7f793c55"><span style="font-size: 15px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: transparent;">Example: Kettering University </span></span>
<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap; line-height: 1.15; background-color: transparent;">Hunter Casbeer, a Spring 2014 cohort University Innovation Fellow, detailed his experience creating an innovation community at Kettering University. Kettering University is a small institution in DaytonFlint, OHMI. Also known at the “GM Institute,” Kettering can be characterized by its unique co-op program and rapid campus turnover. Though the small size and co-op program create hands-on experience for students and result in high employment rates of graduates, this set-up can be a hindrance to innovation on campus. Hunter noted that he finds it easier to “try out ideas” in the small-university setting but more difficult to “get programs implemented.” Additionally, many students are focussed on their heavy course loads and upcoming internships, which impedes enthusiasm for entrepreneurship.</span>
<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap; line-height: 1.15; background-color: transparent;">At Kettering, Hunter started small with the belief that interest in entrepreneurship would snowball if students were to be given opportunities to create and innovate. These opportunities came in the form of an Innovation Quest, a competition held at Campus Center each Wednesday in which students are given a challenge that will get them thinking. An example of a past event is a challenge to create a parachute that keeps something from breaking when it falls off a roof. A simple, low-cost program like this involves 30-40 students each week, which is 5% of the students on campus. From this growing base of students committed to innovation, Hunter envisioned the “T-Space” where students would be able to experiment with their ideas. “T” stands for “Think, Tinker, Thrive,” and that is exactly what Hunter hopes students will be able to achieve. With support from the president of the university, the innovation space is open to student use and continues to be developed and improved.</span>
