These thoughts and stories, and whatever messages or lessons they may convey, are not limited to the experiences of Student Ambassadors. Perhaps one of the most significant strengths of the NCIIA Student Ambassador program is its ability to quite accurately simulate student entrepreneurship; the two are not mutually exclusive! What it means to dive head-first […]
Jared Karp and Adam Eastman describe the sequence of events over one academic year which helped catalyze a student-led movement in the innovation culture on campus. New! Timeline for sequence of events posted below. [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZziMZC5RD4Y&w=560&h=315] We got word of the $20 million gift on Monday afternoon and 78 hours later, we were able to […]
Secret Agents Wanted. Report to ASEE Booth #417. [vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/68241834 w=500&h=281] We are recruiting operatives for the Fall training. Faculty and Administration should report to the Epicenter Booth at the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE) to learn why the country’s future, not to mention the future of your engineering school, will only be secured […]
by Humera Fasihuddin Update 7pm 6/19: And the standings have been announced! See below for each team’s placement and prize. Today, I have the great honor of awarding a 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winner for the ninth year of the BMEidea Awards. The top three represent the finest in student innovations addressing real clinical […]
by Humera Fasihuddin Finding seed funding for your venture while you’re going to school can be a tricky thing. There are sources of funding out there, you just need to do a bit of ‘hustling’ to get it. Here’s a list of EARLY STAGE funding resources, including grants, business plan competitions, sources of loans and […]
By Elliot Roth CREATORS CREATE to hone their CREATIVITY. Engineers are artists. The best of them are making something everyday to exercise their creativity and problem-solving abilities. But, all too often intention is overshadowed by procrastination. Everyone is guilty of procrastination. It’s easy to promise yourself that you’ll do something but it’s a different matter […]
Student Ambassador-curated Science, Technology, Engineering, Math (STEM) and Innovation Resources Stanford, MIT, Johns Hopkins and many others are offering free online classes to give learners independent opportunities to pursue education without the diploma, of course. Add, yes, there are many lists of free online courses, many of which are good and a bunch of which […]
Source: ODesk and Millenial Branding, The Future of Work Thank you to ODesk and Millenial Branding for conducting this study and producing an awesome infographic that articulates the mindset of our Student Ambassadors. Our Student Ambassadors, most of whom are engineers, have “seen the light’. They have come to realize that through engineering, they can […]
By Blake Marggraff When it comes to balancing your efforts as a student entrepreneur and campus ambassador with school, choices that once seemed black and white suddenly tend to blend together. Sure, a few late nights (early mornings?) here and there don’t seem too bad, but in a world where assignments and exams already fluctuate […]
By Sean Newman Maroni Building a university entrepreneurial community is unlike any other student leadership role. As a student leader of NC State’s Entrepreneurship Initiative for the last three years, I’ve learned a lot about sparking entrepreneurship and why many university entrepreneurship programs fail. This article is the first of a 12-part series on cultivating […]
I am ruthless! Thank you, @BenEinstein of Bolt, for articulating the INSTINCTS and RUTHLESSNESS required to bring a great product into the world.
Congratulations to Student Ambassadors Sean Maroni (NCSU), Lucas Arzola (UC Davis), Blake Marggraff (Washington University St. Louis), and Jared Karp (UC Berkeley) who launched BetaVersity this past April. BetaVersity designs and installs prototyping labs and ‘design kitchens’ for students to not only cook up new ideas, but also to make them a reality. For a […]
This Is Water: A Commencement Address Worth Bookmarking This is Water from Patrick Buckley on Vimeo. “This Is Water” is a video interpretation of the famous 2005 Commencement address delivered by David Foster Wallace at Kenyon College (read the backstory about this inspiring video created by LA-based production shop, The Glossary, and the WSJ article […]
Student Ambassadors and University leaders take note, the Kauffman Foundation has made it a whole lot easier to get up and running with your own campus competition! I-Start is an online tool that allows anyone to set up and manage a business plan, business model or design competition. The Kauffman Foundation acquired the platform in […]
What does the study of Biomimicry, Berkeley University and Whole Foods have in common? Boys growing mushrooms, that’s what. But first, let me tell you why this is on my radar screen. I was recently invited to review Stage 2 applications for The Biomimicry Design Challenge (visit the link to see the submissions that made […]
Today show segment showcases exciting new program that’s ‘making makers’ within high school. According to the segment, The unemployment rate for people under the age of 25 is 16.2%, double the national average. A new program in Massachusetts is designed to train students in advanced manufacturing, robotics and precision machining to satisfy the predicted 100,000 […]
The April issue of Harvard Business Review features a must-read article from Steve Blank on the acclaimed Lean Startup Methodology being deployed widely in the technology venture development circles. This is an especially exciting development for two reasons: 1) While HBR has published widely on management issues faced by large and established companies, it hasn’t […]
Your opportunities for employment post-graduation are directly correlated with the fields you pursue and the activities in which you are engaged. Should I bother getting a college education? If this is what you are asking yourself, I suggest you re-frame the question. Ask yourself instead, “Should I bother going to college to pursue a degree […]
In an excellent piece released today on Huffington Post, Chelsea Clinton articulates the reasons why the time is now for gender equality in STEM. We need to better harness the curiosity, imagination and inventive spirit of the other half of the globe’s population. Until we do, we are sub-optimum at a time when the world’s […]
Jared Karp, Student Ambassador from University of California Berkeley, spoke at the Smithsonian Museum of American History in an event entitled, “Spaces of Invention.” The six-speaker event, held as part of the NCIIA Open Conference in Collaboration with Epicenter and was delivered Pecha Kucha-style (also known in some circles as an Ignite talk). In 15 […]
Twenty Student Ambassadors sat at the edge of their seats for today’s lunch keynote by Robert Tercek who spoke about the future of many of today’s companies driven by change sin mobile and information technology. Ten Student Ambassadors waited in line to meet Tercek, run an idea by him or invite him to keynote their […]
Student Ambassadors welcome nine new candidates this week at the OPEN Conference in Washington D.C., including an undergraduate and graduate student from Purdue. Between the commitment to train two engineering towards the student-led movement to expand Innovation and Entrepreneurship activity and this AMAZINGLY COOL engineering parody of “Thrift Shop” by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, there’s […]
The culmination of the much-anticipated Trader Challenge yielded an undisputed win by Joe Marcus whose most recent trade was a Ford 250 Truck for a Bowflex PR3000 Home Gym. According to reports in the campus paper, Penn State’s Daily Collegian, “His goal was to get a more reliable four-wheel drive car for his father […]
Student Ambassadors travel to Bay Area, attend Stanford E-Week [wpvideo Jczop8dN] Nine top-performing Student Ambassadors had an immersive experience in Silicon Valley last week to bring back best practices to their campuses. Some may say, “What happens at Stanford can’t be replicated in our region!” Perhaps not in its entirety. But, we think by breaking […]
Student Ambassadors arrive to SFO today, hitting Stanford’s signature Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders lecture series first, followed by the popular Spirit of Entrepreneurship course. These two offerings represent ingredients in ‘secret sauce’ at Stanford and Student Ambassadors will be attending both. Among the other amazing things planned is a tour of Google and PayPal… and the […]
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJNOi_UqZhs&w=560&h=315] TEDxWakeForest Student Ambassador Christina Oelsner had tough shoes to fill. Last year’s Student Ambassador Lucy Lan rocked the campus with a sold-out first-ever TEDxWakeForest to share ‘ideas worth spreading’ and infuse innovation and entrepreneurship into the dialogue at Wake. Not only was Christina tapped on the shoulder to be a Student Ambassador with […]
John Oliver at Penn State is one of nine students who is being recognized as one of our 2012-2013 Top Performers. He is called out amongst the 27 Student Ambassadors not for the 2 concurrent SPARKs he led during Global Entrepreneurship Week, nor for the awards event that culminated, but rather for the Ultimate Trader […]
NCIIA and Epicenter are pleased to announce an expansion of the Student Ambassadors program. The program, founded in 2009, trains student leaders to promote entrepreneurship and venture activity, particularly in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) disciplines, among their peers on college and university campuses throughout the U.S. Today’s announced expansion consists of a six-session […]
Here’s a great infographic for why student ambassadors are leading the charge to create entrepreneurial ecosystems on their college campuses. Click on the graphic to see the larger image and read the post “The Rise of Entrepreneurship on College Campuses (Infographic)” by Diana Ransom, Contributing Editor of Young Entrepreneur. ~ Humera Fasihuddin, Manager of Student […]
The 5th annual University of Michigan drew a record 4,500 submissions to its 1,000 Pitches Competition. Organizers announced winners in each of the nine categories. The competition, led by campus organization M-Powered, invites undergrad and grad students to submit 3-minute videos of their technology or business pitch online. From the organization’s website, the competition was […]
