The CSUF Center for Entrepreneurship proudly announces that Mr. Cristian Sanchez (Entrepreneurship major) and Ms. Amerika Bernal (Accounting major) have been named “Innovation Fellows” at the nationally acclaimed University Innovation Fellows program, which is sponsored by Stanford’s and VentureWell’s Epicenter organization.

This video explains exactly what Epicenter does to promote engineering and innovation:

The University Innovation Fellows are part of a national movement to ensure that students gain the necessary attitudes, skills and knowledge required for them to compete in the economy of the future. These student leaders from schools around the country work with their peers to catalyze even greater levels of innovation and venture activity on their campuses. The program is run by the National Center for Engineering Pathways to Innovation, funded by the National Science Foundation and directed by Stanford University and the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance (NCIIA).

Cristian and Amerika will be interacting with many faculty and students as part of their work mapping the entrepreneurial ecosystem of our school. An elite group of top students, the University Fellows mainly consist of undergraduate engineering majors, but as interdisciplinary collaboration is vital, we have several graduate and Ph.D. students, as well as undergraduates, majoring in biotechnology, biochemistry, architecture, design, business, entrepreneurship and child psychology.

Innovation Fellows are contributing to the national dialogue on their needs in higher education by:

• Speaking at national conferences about their work.
• Collaborating with other fellows regionally and by discipline.
• Advocating for changes in policy that create, nurture and support a nation of young people who possess an entrepreneurial mindset, a passion for solving society’s most pressing problems and the necessary attitudes, skills and abilities to make a difference in the world.

CSUF was also announced as a “Leadership Circle” with John Bradley Jackson, Director of CSUF Center for Entrepreneurship, as the University Fellow Adviser. The circle will:

• Innovate new ways to enhance the educational experience so as to attract and retain more students in STEM fields by engaging those students in hands-on, applied & self-directed learning opportunities.
• Advocate and lead cross-departmental and cross-institutional partnerships.
• Collaborate to hold new course offerings that incorporate creativity, innovation, design thinking and entrepreneurship within and alongside traditional STEM coursework.