Rowan’s fifth cohort of University Innovation Fellows is inducted, fostering positive change and innovative thinking
Change agency and innovation is on the rise as Rowan’s fifth cohort of University Innovation Fellows (UIF) were inducted on Friday, Dec. 1 before this year’s Idea Challenge. The fellowship not only gives students an opportunity to be catalysts for change around the campus, there are over 237 new fellows around the world who are being trained to become change agents in their own communities.
Fellows are nominated by department heads from colleges and programs all over campus for being hard working, self-motivated and high-achieving. After nominations are in, fellowship candidates go through a series of interviews and this year, four students were given the unique opportunity to be invited to become a fellow. Biomedical engineering juniors Resty Mercado, Joshua de Guzman, Marissa Pestritto and senior Erica Tran were selected for their creative thinking and willingness to make Rowan a better place, according to Dr. Michael Dominik, fellowship advisor and Senior Lecturer in the School of Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
“This fifth Rowan cohort is very creative and understands the pulse of our campus as it fits into our larger world, and that’s why they want to influence our campus community to use innovation as a way to build cultural understanding,” said Dominik.
Fellows are tasked with coming up with a project that will innovate and improve a given part of the campus. In year’s past, students have worked on an array of meaningful projects that have resulted in real change around campus, some of which include the development of Rowan’s Think Like an Entrepreneur Summer Academy for high school students and the creation of Studio 231, Rowan’s collaborative space for entrepreneurs to transform their ideas and inventions into a tangible product.
This year’s cohort will be designing a Multicultural Innovation Day event, with the hopes of bringing people of different backgrounds and cultures together for a transformative and meaningful day of networking, learning and diversity. The event is planned to take place on March 28, 2024 at the Business Hall, showcasing and unifying multicultural student organizations from all over campus.
“You’re meeting more people, you’re making more connections, cultivating more relationships with the people you are on campus with and if you want to innovate, or get something done, more people, more connections, more resources, I feel like that just increases the capability to do what you want to do,” said de Guzman.
Creativity is crucial to fellows as it is able to inspire new ideas and create robust and nuanced conversations. All members of the cohort are encouraged to share their feedback and perspectives with one another, in order to make the project the best that it can be.
“Innovation means to be creative – to be creative, based on who you are as a person and your strengths. So as a team, we have different members, we all bring something different to the project, different points of view and different advice or criticism,” said Mercado.
The diversity of this project and the fact that fellows are engineering majors is something that is emphasized a lot in Rowan’s entrepreneurship program. Interdisciplinary classes and instruction are part of a larger mission to engage students from all over campus in thinking and acting entrepreneurially in their respective careers and projects.
Tran noted that having this opportunity is a way for herself and the other fellows to strengthen their skills but also to expand the innovative mindset to all students around campus regardless of their field of study or background.
“You can have this mindset, any place, any major you’re in, any culture. And innovation and driving entrepreneurial mindsets, it’s available to everyone, you just have to have an outlet to where you can kind of take advantage of it,” said Tran.
After the celebration takes place, fellows will embark on a once in a lifetime opportunity to network with other change catalysts around the globe, when they go to The University of Twente in The Netherlands in April. In years past, students have had the opportunity to go to Stanford University in California, where the UIF is managed, but this year the trip will expand overseas.
Their fellowship experience not only gives them an opportunity to learn from each other, but by creating the event, these students are able to be hands-on and build something that is tangible and has a real impact on their peers outside of the classroom.
“I think now that we’re at the time that we’re able to actually make something happen, it’ll be really cool to see how that comes out,” Pestritto said.
Visit ent.rowan.edu to learn more about Entrepreneurship at Rowan.
Story by: Madison Miller
