University of Galway IdeasLab students have joined with students from 67 colleges in 15 countries to become University Innovation Fellows.
The University Innovation Fellows (UIF) program empowers students to become agents of change at their universities.
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.
Fellows create student innovation spaces, start entrepreneurship organizations, facilitate experiential workshops, work with the university community to develop new courses, and much more.
The inaugural fellows at the University of Galway are Mia Shanley Brookes (Medicinal Chemistry, 2024), Sophie Spellissy (Computer Science and Information Technology, 2025) and Ciaran Cox (Biomedical Engineering, 2028).
Mia, Sophie and Ciaran are working as advocates for lasting institutional change with university leaders, lending the much-needed student voice to the conversations about the future of higher education and entrepreneurship.
The students participated in a 6-week training experience during which they learned to analyse their campus ecosystems and identify opportunities for change related to innovation, entrepreneurship, design thinking, and creativity.
They worked to understand the needs of peers on the University campus and apply this new knowledge and perspective to design new educational opportunities for their peers.
This year the student team will prototype a new programme that focuses on shadowing start-ups and early-stage companies to better understand how firms work and what types of roles students may wish to undertake once they finish university and move onto their next chapter.
The Fellows programme is run by Stanford University’s Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (d. School). With the addition of the new Fellows, the programme has trained more than 3,100 students since its creation.
Dr Natalie Walsh, Director of Entrepreneurial Development at the University of Galway stated, “We are delighted to join the University Innovation Fellowship community and
She added that the university is happy to, “Support our students to design new experiences that support all students to develop the skills and mindsets necessary to navigate these uncertain times and to shape the future they want to see.”
“The partnership aligns with our values of excellence and sustainability, and we are excited to launch a new programme designed and delivered by Mia, Ciaran and Sophie in early 2024”
The University of Galway is the only Irish University who have taken part in the UIF programme.
A core theme of the programme supports responsible future growth and the team looks forward to travelling to the University of Twente this year to build skills and expertise and connect in person with the UIF community of over 2,000 faculty and students from across the globe.
