We partner with students, faculty, and professional staff from virtually every unit at UNE. In our Makerspace and Sustainable Innovation Center, you’ll find graduate and undergraduate students from different disciplines, working on projects to bring positive change. We also serve as internal consultants to units across the university, supporting faculty and professional staff in their innovation initiatives. We cultivate an open, inclusive, collaborative culture, with a focus on having fun.
Many students come to college with desire to make a difference. Our innovation and entrepreneurship programs give them the tools they need to make visible, positive change happen. Through fellowships or mentorships, we put a priority on giving them the opportunity to work on real-world projects in areas they care about. Our students have made a tangible, visible difference both on and off campus in fields as diverse as healthcare, education, student life, and marine science.
We help students learn what they are best at and then work with teams to identify how individual strengths contribute to the overall effort. In our innovation programs, we provide the support and structure to make the team experience a positive one. Because of this, students develop a better understanding of what it means to work on a team and how they can uniquely contribute. Our innovation teams are highly successful at not only delivering high-quality projects but fostering a collaborative team experience with skills that they can take into their future career.
While our students deliver impressive project results, we are most excited by the transformation in their personal skills, a change that sets them up for success in whatever field they choose. They are confident, collaborative, adaptable, able to tolerate ambiguity, and have a solid understanding of how to turn ideas into action.
We believe students need to be comfortable, if not proficient, with technology relevant to their field. We provide access to high-powered computers and software and mentor students in developing their digital literacy skills — whether they are prototyping an app or working on a data science application. Many of our students start with no knowledge of ‘coding’ and develop confidence in their capabilities. This knowledge of technology and our unique learning environment has helped many of our students get jobs after graduation.
Being an effective communicator is a skill required in almost every field. In our innovation and entrepreneurship programs, we teach students to be effective storytellers and provide individualized coaching in presentation skills. These communication skills are intentionally developed through mentorship and practice. As a result, our students are not only effective communicators but are confident in their abilities — appearing on TV and in competitions and presenting to large audiences.
Our innovation and entrepreneurship team provides coaching and mentoring to students, helping them connect with people in their fields who can support their projects. We maintain an extensive network of mentors from the community and are well-connected to the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Maine. Depending on the needs of individual projects, our students may work with these outside experts. In a typical semester, we could have student teams working with experts in engineering, interactive design, finance, healthcare, marketing, and entrepreneurship. It’s a way to gain real resume-building skills within a structure that supports students’ ideas and passions.
The purpose of our programs is to develop very practical, real-world skills that enable our students to stand out in their job applications and in their careers. We work closely with employers to understand what they are looking for and tailor our programs to meet those expectations. Our students can often make a direct link from their innovation projects to their future internship and job offers.