The university initiatives described below were “first of their kind”, which meant design and implementation roadmaps were created from scratch. Each project responds to a pain point and challenges the status quo through questions.
University Innovation Fellowship
(2009-2019)
Pain Point: The career pathways into higher education are limited, especially for individuals who want to help make organizational design changes and work as intrapreneurs.
Questions:
What if early-mid career professionals were trained and empowered to launch demonstration projects that contributed to ASU’s evolution as a New American University?
What if other universities used a fellow model to catalyze change?
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The University Innovation Alliance Fellowship was modeled after this program.
Acceptance speech for the 2016 Cordes Innovation Hall of Fame Award
Kimberly de los Santos created the program in 2009 and accepted the AshokaU Innovation Award in 2012. Jacqueline was in the founding cohort of fellows in 2009 and contributed to evolving the program during her tenure in the Office of University Initiatives.
Baobab
(2014-2019)
Pain Point: Scholarships are time bound and the development of transformational leaders spans a lifetime.
Questions:
Why do scholarship programs invest in individuals when the most pressing challenges require complex collaborations?
What if a curated lifelong learning environment embraced the power of many?
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Public Service Academy
(2012-2015)
Pain Point: Universities need to reinvigorate their commitment to public service with new career pathways for undergraduates.
Questions:
Why are complex challenges tackled in silos?
What if undergraduate students were trained to collaborate across sectors?
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New ASU program helps undergrads change the world (AZ Central, 2015)
Changemaker Central
(2010-2012)
Pain Point: ASU’s entrepreneurship and social change offerings were confusing for students to navigate.
Questions:
Why are students who volunteer through “days of service” or “service learning” not crossing paths with student entrepreneurs?
What if students supported each other in the advancement of their social change missions?
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Video from TEDxAshokaU in 2011