AAMU Fellows Will Attend Meetup at the University of Twente in Netherlands
Alabama A&M University Students Named Stanford d.school University Innovation Fellows
Four Alabama A&M University students are headed to Europe April 9 to April 15 to participate in Stanford University’s Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (d.school) at the University of Twente in Enschede, Netherlands. The students are among 242 students from 63 higher education students in 15 countries named University Innovation Fellows.
The University Innovation Fellows (UIF) program empowers students to become agents of change at their schools. Fellows work to ensure that all students gain the attitudes, skills and knowledge required to navigate a complex world and build the future. These student leaders from schools around the globe create opportunities to help their peers build the creative confidence, agency, and entrepreneurial mindset needed to address global challenges.
AAMU’s University Fellows include:
Angel Scott, senior elementary education major from Mobile, Alabama
Jenee Whitt, junior marketing major from Louisville, Kentucky
Albert Ball, secondary education (mathematics) graduate student from Oxford, Mississippi
Rodney Farrell, kinesiology graduate student from Madison, Alabama
They are the first team to represent Alabama A&M University in the prestigious program. Fellows create student innovation spaces, start entrepreneurship organizations, facilitate experiential workshops, and work with faculty and administrators to develop new courses.
They also serve as advocates for lasting institutional change with academic leaders, lending much needed student voices to the conversations about the future of higher education. The program is run by Stanford University’s d.school. With the addition of the new Fellows, the program has trained more than 3,100 students since its creation.
“Our Fellows will be working on a campus-specific innovative project while learning how to apply design thinking principles to their project,” says Dr. Samantha Strachan, Associate Professor and Program Coordinator in the Department of Teacher Education and Leadership. “They will also participate in interactive sessions at the University of Twente where they will explore different iterations of their project to address a real-world problem on campus.”
Strachan was recently accepted as a candidate into Stanford University’s Faculty Innovation Fellowship Program. The two-year candidacy will allow Strachan to work with faculty from all over the world as she applies principles of design thinking to improve teacher recruitment and retention.
Strachan and Dr. Lena Walton, AAMU Associate Professor of Elementary Education, will accompany AAMU’s University Innovation Fellows on their trip to Europe.
(Photo L-R) Dr. Lena Walton, Rodney Farrell, Jenee Whitt, Angel Scott, Albert Ball, Dr. Samantha Strachan