NSF Award
2325444
The National Academy of Engineering recommends instilling innovative and entrepreneurial qualities in students as a part of their formal education to address pressing problems and maintain global competitiveness in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Developing entrepreneurial skills and an entrepreneurial mindset reinforces and complements the technical skills, knowledge, and competencies traditionally acquired in STEM disciplines. An interdisciplinary workforce trained in entrepreneurship skills will be well positioned for the rapidly changing landscape of careers in STEM. This National Science Foundation Innovations in Graduate Education (IGE) award to the University of Connecticut will implement the Entrepreneurship Fellowship program with the goal to progressively train STEM graduate students in entrepreneurial skills, knowledge, and competencies through a unique framework of educational and experiential opportunities. The entrepreneurial skills and diverse mindsets gained through the program will help serve the fellows and broader society as the fellows: lead scientifically innovative startups; hold research and innovation roles at established companies, government, and academia; or enter more traditional roles in the engineering workforce. <br/><br/>The Entrepreneurship Fellowship program consists of a framework of carefully designated courses, programs, and activities to guide students in their entrepreneurship fellowship journey as they learn, practice, and refine entrepreneurial skills. Over the course of the one-year fellowship, students are introduced to multifaceted and diverse entrepreneurship concepts through experiential educational modules and are encouraged to develop entrepreneurial skills and mindsets along with burgeoning entrepreneurial networks. The objectives of the project are to build, pilot, test, assess, refine, and validate the proposed fellowship program. Multi-level and multi-dimensional assessment tools will be used to evaluate the program with formative and summative data and to test, refine, and amplify its educational and developmental values, and disseminate the details, outcomes, and impacts of the pilot model to advance knowledge and understanding in entrepreneurship and engineering education. Knowledge generated from this project could illuminate future approaches to integrate interdisciplinary frameworks, pedagogy, and leadership practices, and allow for wide implementation and test interventions that could potentially narrow the gaps in STEM entrepreneurship pathways and better prepare communities for present and future work opportunities.<br/><br/>The Innovations in Graduate Education (IGE) program is focused on research in graduate education. The goals of IGE are to pilot, test and validate innovative approaches to graduate education and to generate the knowledge required to move these approaches into the broader community.<br/><br/>This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
