Faculty Mini-Grant Awards
*Bold indicates Principal Investigator
Colleges of the Fenway Entrepreneurial Sustainability Certificate Program
Abstract:
We are applying for Davis Mini-Grant funds to evaluate the feasibility of a Colleges of the Fenway Entrepreneurial Sustainability Certificate Program to empower students with the skills required to make positive change in their communities. The certificate will provide opportunities for faculty from each of the COF schools to teach and work together and collaborate with professionals in the community. The program begins during the 10-day January intersession with an intense student-led and faculty-facilitated ideation session, focusing on: teamwork, entrepreneurship, and sustainability. Potential community partners would also be invited to participate. By the end of the January session students would construct the outline of a plan that they will research during the spring semester. During the summer, students work closely with a community partner to implement and troubleshoot their projects. At the end of the summer, a final report and presentation will complete the requirements for the Certificate.
Faculty Involved:
Anna Aguilera, Michael Berger, Erin Decurtis, Cherie Ramirez (Simmons College); Jack Duggan, (Wentworth Institute of Technology)
Award: $13,000
Colleges of the Fenway Entrepreneurship Education and Institutional Community Building Program
Abstract:
In the proposed project two key actions will be taken before May 2017 to build a joint entrepreneurship education program across the Colleges of the Fenway schools. First, a COF faculty interaction (monthly meetings) and student co-curricular program (2 community events and establishment of a student club) will be implemented by the grant applicants to give students and faculty meaningful opportunities to interact across COF related to entrepreneurship. Second, an inventory of COF institution entrepreneurship-related courses, co-curricular activities, commitments, and interested faculty and staff will be built and analyzed. After development, the data will be presented to all interested parties of the Colleges of the Fenway through an open meeting in May 2018. Recommendations for forward action will be determined and first commitments for fall 2018 programming will be made at that gathering. This proposal will support the Davis Educational Foundation’s goal of creating a COF incubator by raising awareness of entrepreneurship amongst students, creating a community of entrepreneurial students, and establishing an organized network of faculty and staff interested in supporting student entrepreneurship through courses, student internship opportunities, and curricular and co-curricular activities. We will see where interests and synergies lie. We will also reach out to MCPHS to invite their participation.
Faculty Involved:
Anne Marie Pasquale (Emmanuel College); Sara Hartman (MassArt); Teresa Nelson (Simmons College); Michael Mozill, Santiago Umaschi (Wentworth Institute of Technology)
Award: $13,630
Global Impact Symposium & Student Organization
Abstract:
Given the diversity of the Colleges of the Fenway student and faculty population, and the ever-growing need to incorporate intercultural competencies into the student collegial experience, this proposal aims to explore the development and creation of 1) a Global Impact Symposium to showcase the intersection of identity and scholarship in a global context, and 2) a Global Impact Student Organization to foster and sustain an ongoing dialogue amongst undergraduate students to foster and embrace the diversity of perspectives that come from a global and intercultural competence.
Faculty Involved:
Jill Meleedy (Emmanuel College); Amy Holland (MassArt); Gail Marcus, Shanti Freundlich (MCPHS University); Cherie Lynn Ramirez, Joseph Stanley (Simmons College); Rebecca Bacon, Doug Upton, (Colleges of the Fenway)
Award: $14,000
The Development of a Health Humanities Major for Colleges of the Fenway Undergraduates
Abstract:
The purpose of this grant is to develop an undergraduate major in Health Humanities for the
Colleges of the Fenway. The recent rapid expansion of health humanities mirrors the growing recognition of the importance of a biopsychosocial model of health. Health Humanities foster imagination, empathy, and critical thinking in future health care providers; humanities practice (reading, writing, artistic expression) promotes self-awareness and; humanists bring critical perspective to the discourses of illness and wellness; and health humanists can bridge gaps in communication and understanding amongst professional and lay audiences. Drawing from existing resources, courses, and expertise from COF programs, we will create a degree program which will combine study in the health with the humanities and arts. Our baccalaureate degree program in Health Humanities will provide students with rigorous program that will prepare them for careers in health care, science journalism, health care law and policy, and humanities education.
Faculty Involved:
Mark Flynn, Michelle Maiese, Lenore Martin, Lisa Stepanski (Emmanuel College); Dien Ho, Carol-Ann Farkas, Jennifer Tebbe-Gross, Martha Gardner, Ellen Ginsburg, Susan Gorman, A. David Lewis, Christian Nelson, Ken Richman, Richard Kaplan (MCPHS University); Diane Grossman (Simmons College); Ronald Bernier (Wentworth Institute of Technology); Billie Starks (Wheelock College)
Award: $15,000
Colleges of the Fenway Health, Science and Technology Incubator
Abstract:
With the rapid growth in the healthcare industry and innovation and entrepreneurship being key to this growth, it is our intent to develop a Health, Science and Technology Incubator. The incubator will provide a platform for students across the many COF academic programs the ability to work in interdisciplinary teams to research, create, and design innovative products, services, and programs, while developing teamwork and leadership skills. As entrepreneurship in health professions and engineering continues to intensify, education in this area is becoming an increasing focus, but has not been widely adopted and infrastructure is lacking. Through research and analysis, and outreach to industry experts, we aim to develop a COF Incubator (COFI) which will allow MCPHS and Wentworth Institute of Technology (WIT) in collaboration with other schools of the COF to achieve optimal practice standards and provide leading-edge entrepreneurial education for a wide variety of healthcare, computer science, engineering, and arts and science students.
Faculty Involved:
Joseph Ferullo, Nancy Stern (MCPHS University); Durga Suresh-Menon (Wentworth Institute of Technology)
Award: $13,700
Joint Program on Immigration Studies
Abstract:
The aim of the project is to create a joint program among three (or more) institutions of the Colleges of the Fenway. The program would promote an interdisciplinary curriculum to offer COF’s students the possibility to pursue a highly specialized program in a crucial topic such as Immigration. The program will take advantage of the interdisciplinary expertise of interested faculty among the Colleges of Fenway. Ideally, it will be comprised of scholars researching on immigration issues from different departments (History, Sociology, Art, Political Science, Economics and International Studies). The realization of such a shared program would increase intra-colleges interactions and collaborations. Students and faculty as well would be able to take advantages of the different strengths and assets that each contributing department could bring into play. Finally, an active and unique joint program will increase the visibility of each college and of the consortium as a whole.
Faculty Involved:
Violetta Ravagnoli, Jeffrey Fortin (Emmanuel College); Lisong Liu (MassArt); Frances Sullivan (Simmons College)
Award: $15,000
Development of the Colleges of the Fenway Undergraduate Research Center
Abstract:
The objective of the proposed project is to provide support and lay the groundwork for the development of the Colleges of the Fenway Undergraduate Research Center (COF-URC). The Center’s primary purpose is to provide undergraduate COF students with access to mentorship and opportunities to engage in hands-on research to enrich their academic experiences, increase their competitiveness when applying to graduate/professional schools or work opportunities, and to prepare them to become the next generation of scientists and researchers. This focus on research is driven by extant data indicating that undergraduates who gain early exposure to mentorship and research increase their positive educational outcomes including increased likelihood of degree completion and graduate school enrollment. The COF-URC will host an annual research conference, catalog COF faculty research interests, create networking opportunities for underrepresented students and faculty, create an intensive shared COF Summer Introduction to Research course, and establish a COF-Talks seminar series.
Faculty Involved:
Clare Mehta (Emmanuel College); Keri Griffin, Mollie Ruben (MCPHS University); Amanda Carey (Simmons College); Erik Miller (Wentworth Institute of Technology)
Award: $15,000
This grant was received from the Davis Educational Foundation established by Elisabeth and Stanton Davis after Mr. Davis’s retirement as chairmen of the Shaw’s Supermarkets, Inc.