The University Innovation Fellows program is pleased to announce a new for-credit course to train Fellows on campus in Fall 2020

Applications to host the course, Empowering Student Change Agents, are due January 31, 2020.

December 13, 2019

The UIF Team has launched an application process for schools to hold a for-credit course for up to 20 students in Fall of 2020 titled Empowering Student Change Agents. The course will be offered to ten selected schools in place of the 6-week UIF online training currently offered for up to 4 students per school. This course will provide a deep dive into a larger set of potential campus projects as well as more opportunities for peer collaboration. The course outline and teaching materials will be provided to instructors by the UIF team. Schools will be eligible to be considered if they have had multiple cohorts of Fellows. Prospective teaching teams for the course should include long-standing Faculty Champions accompanied by up to three others (faculty, staff, Fellows and/or other community leaders). Selected campuses will pay a fee of $20,000 to hold the for-credit course for up to 20 students. A two-phased application process seeks both Faculty Champion interest and commitment from institutional leaders.

Here is the outline of the application process:

January 31, 2020: Deadline for Phase 1: Faculty Champion Application
February 14, 2020: Invitations for Phase 2 announced
February 28, 2020: Deadline for Phase 2: Administrator Commitment Application
March 6, 2020: Campus notified of selection
Spring 2020: Teaching team is trained and recruits students for the Fall 2020 class

Presidents and Provosts from current UIF campuses who are considering applying to participate in this pilot are invited to attend the UIF Leaders’ Summit (March 23, 2020, at Stanford University), during which the Presidents of James Madison University and University of Twente will share the experience and impact of the 2019 pilot. For more information on the Summit, contact team@universityinnovation.org. More information on the 2019 pilot is below.

Faculty Champions: Begin the Application Process Here:

About the 2019 Pilot:

Nine students at James Madison University and sixteen students at University of Twente took part in a 2019 pilot, guided by longstanding Faculty Champions Nick Swayne and Miriam Iliohan. They were supported by UIF staff and peers at Michigan Technical University, University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, and Grand Valley State University. The class helped these schools nurture a greater number of change agents than the current UIF online training (limited to four students) and develop a greater number of projects to improve the school, area K12 institutions, and their local communities.

The 25 students at James Madison University and University of Twente were launched as Fellows in October. Since then, they have been working on a variety of initiatives that support institutional stakeholders and student needs. Four students from each campus will travel to the Silicon Valley Meetup in March 2020 to expand their learning and bring back useful strategies to their larger cohort.