User talk:James.Milam
How to Stitch Campus Faculty and Student Relationships to Support Student Innovation
How to Guide
Stitching Campus Faculty and Student Relationships to Support Student Innovation
Overview:
The problem: Often times students have innovative ideas, but have a difficult time establishing relationships with influential academic individuals with the power to mobilize and enable their ideas like faculty, and administrators. Having these types of relationships are pivotal to making ideas and dreams become a reality. Without being able to break down the walls between the students and faculty, innovative ideas can be pointlessly abandoned and passion can be lost.
From the Faculty and Administrative points of view, a student will only be enrolled at an institution for a certain amount of time. How can faculty invest time and resources into a temporary project that is likely to graduate and move on when the student does? This guide below will explain how to establish mutually beneficial relationships between students, faculty, and administrators. After all, these relationships are the ultimate key for innovation and entrepreneurship to flourish.
Dream Big:
The cornerstone of most relationships between students and faculty is innovation.
- Have an innovative idea or dream that you are passionate about.
- Research the originality and plausibility of your idea.
- Articulate your idea.
- Approach the faculty member.
- Communicate the vision them
- Exaggerate the possible results of your idea to your professor. (Do not be afraid to over sell your idea.)
Gaining Support:
From Faculty:
Because of the finite nature of a student's college career, faculty often find it difficult to invest time and resources into an idea that will likely graduate in four years along with the student. For this reason it is important for the student to provide faculty with incentives for providing their services and resources. If an innovation centered program is not already integrated into the curriculum, a foundational step that students could take to gain support would be to start an extracurricular club. If the club succeeds then it will reflect positively on a particular department on the faculty sponsors, which will give the faculty more incentive to continue helping out. Another strategy a student could use is to exaggerate the scale of interest and participation. If a faculty member believes in a high interest level in your idea then they will be more likely to go all in and give you their support. Gaining and maintaining support from faculty is key because it is the gateway to earning support from the most powerful individuals both on campus and in some cases around the world.
From Fellow Students:
Bring in fellow students by marketing your idea as a mutually beneficial cause. Simply market your idea as a resume builder for participants and also as something that they can use to market themselves. Once the students become engaged in your idea or club they will likely discover untapped self interest in innovation and entrepreneurship. By using this tactic you can increase the number of fellow students interested in your cause and ultimately improve awareness and visibility of your idea.
It is through gaining support and relationships that innovation and entrepreneurship can flourish.
Guarantee Longevity:
Optimize Resources:
