Integrating Minerva Fellows Into Student Projects in Developing

Countries or

The Ahh Haa Moment

Harold O. FriedDavid A. Hodgson

Union CollegeSchenectady, NY 12308

friedh@Union.edu

ALOHA

The Context

• Union College is a liberal arts institution (2,300 students) with engineering, without business and no graduate programs.

• Every engineering student does a two term senior project.

• Union College is situated in the Capital Region of NYS which is pursuing a high tech development strategy.

• UC Strategic plan: “UC will be a leader in educating students to be engaged, innovative, and ethical contributors to an increasingly diverse, global and technologically complex society.”

WINTER TERM COURSE FOR CREATIVE PEOPLE – ARTISTS, WRITERS, POETS, ENTREPRENEURS, ENGINEERS, SCIENTISTS…

SENIOR ENTREPRENEURSHIP SEMINAR FOR ENGINEERS AND LIBERAL ARTS STUDENTS. IDM 325No Prereqs

Interdisciplinary teams produce a business/marketing plan for an engineer’s senior project. Emphasize senior projects that are commerciallyviable and socially responsible. Email Hal Fried (friedh@union.edu) for more info.

The VISION

• Implement a program for Union students to work with poor communities on beneficial projects.

• Involve students from all disciplines.• Make Paul Polak proud and involve the

community in the process.

A Key Resource: Minerva Fellows

• Nine scholarships to graduating seniors to work with NGOs in developing countries.

• Take Hal’s social entrepreneurship course in the spring term, graduate in June, depart in July, return to Union for the month of May.

• Countries: Cambodia, India, Ecuador, South Africa, Uganda, and Ghana.

• Leverage this resource to implement student projects in developing countries and do it right.

Course 1

• Objective: Work with Minerva Fellows to identify problems in communities.

• Enroll engineers and liberal arts students.• Generate a preliminary set of solutions.• Select one (or more) project(s) to implement.

Course 2

• Refine the project.• Identify the materials and the costs.• In depth study of the community, the country

and the culture.• Raise the funds for travel and execution of the

project.

Make it Happen!

Gaps and Challenges

• Timing of the two courses and the travel.• Tight schedule for engineers.• Students commit to two courses + travel.• Faculty resources.• Administrative approval.• College “risk management”• We are just an undergraduate college.

A Potential Partnership

• Work with Arizona State University. • Joint teams• Provide vetted projects.• And more …

Three Key Ingredients for a Course that will Never Fail

• Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, Chip Heath and Dan Heath

• So What? Who Cares? Why You? The Inventors Commercialization Tool Kit, Wendy Kennedy.

• Business Model Generation, Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur and an amazing crowd of 470 practitioners from 45 countries.

Thank you

and

ALOHA