The students join a global community of Fellows charged with increasing campus engagement with innovation, entrepreneurship, design thinking and creativity.
Four Elon University students have been accepted into the University Innovation Fellows program administered by Stanford University’s Hasso Plattnew Institute of Design, more commonly called d.school.
Briana Brady, a sophomore applied mathematics major from Setauket, New York; Josh Cadorette, a sophomore finance major from Media, Pennsylvania; James Setzer, a junior economics and marketing double major from Hickory, North Carolina; and Nicholas Smith, a sophomore finance and entrepreneurship double major from Raleigh, North Carolina; are among 224 fellows selected from 58 higher education institutions in seven countries.
Fellows are student leaders who create new opportunities to help their peers develop an entrepreneurial mindset, build creative confidence, seize opportunities, define problems and address global challenges.
“I wanted to join the Innovation Fellows program to help bring ideas from Stanford University to Elon’s campus in order to better our intellectual culture,” Brady said.
Fellows go through six weeks of online training and will participate in the annual University Innovation Fellows Silicon Valley Meetup in March, bringing Fellows together for immersive experiences at Stanford’s d.school, Google, Microsoft and other Silicon Valley organizations. They will participate in experiential workshops and exercises focused on topics including movement building, innovation spaces, design of learning experiences and new models for change in higher education.
Smith plans to apply what he learns in the training towards the development of the design thinking lab which will open in the new Richard W. Sankey Hall. “I hope to help improve Elon by making campus a better place for students from different disciplines to work together on their ideas and passions,” Smith said.
“During their training, Fellows learn how to analyze their campus innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystems and understand the needs of stakeholders with the goal of uncovering opportunities to enrich the educational opportunities for their peers,” said Leticia Britos Cavagnaro, co-director of the University Innovation Fellows program. “They utilize frameworks like Design Thinking and Lean Startup to bring their ideas to life and work with peers from different backgrounds and disciplines.”