DIY: Student Organizations

DIY: Student Organizations

"Integrating EM and the 3Cs of innovation into Fulton Student Organizations provided a unique opportunity to encourage student organizations to think more creatively and holistically."

- Cortney Loui, Coordinator - Undergraduate Engagement

Case at a glance

Integration goals

Integrate EM into student organizations both at the program level and within individual student organization activities

Materials affected

Online modules, KEEN fliers, training and presentations, shared documents, application system, social media

Lessons learned

It’s important that student organization program leaders get as much training on EM as possible so that they can better understand how to promote it and implement it. Likewise, it’s important to identify clear goals early on so that progress can be effectively tracked. 

Context

Fulton Schools’ Student Organizations (FSOs) are administered under the umbrella of the Engineering Dean's Office. The program now has more than  60 organizations, all of which apply for recognition and/or funding. The organizations have approximately 1,000individual members, all currently enrolled students. The vision for FSOs is described as follows:

The Fulton Student Organizations are distinguished as institutionally, nationally and internationally recognized engineering and technical student organizations leading in awards, scholarships, rankings, competitions, and sponsorships; in the impact they have on ASU and the broader community; and in providing superior leadership, engagement, outreach, and professional preparedness opportunities for Tempe, Polytechnic, and online Fulton students.

The overriding goal of FSE’s student organizations program is furthering FSE’s values of leadership, success, community, and professional preparedness. New organizations have the opportunity to receive $300 in starter funding to promote their new organizations. Officer retreat funding for planning with an advisor present is also available.

Each year, FSOs have the opportunity to apply for Dean’s Funding, which is designed to support activities that encourage student interaction with faculty, staff or industry; bring prestige and recognition to the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering; enhance the engineering or technical education of students; or facilitates peer-to-peer student mentoring. If funded, the organization works throughout the academic year to spend the funding, volunteer for Engineering Dean’s Office events, achieve organization milestones, partner with Fulton Student Council, and become an active collaborator within the Fulton Schools. At the end of the year, they submit an end-of-year assessment for their organization’s Dean’s Funding experience. 

In the first phases of the EM integration initiative, the focus was primarily on the Fulton Undergraduate Research Initiative (FURI). Likewise, student organizations have been involved with determining the themes for Devils Invent events. For example, the Sun Devils Robotics Club and the IoT group have suggested event themes and helped define challenges. KEEN funds have been available to support this effort.

Integration details

This integration efforts details are summarized in the timeline below.

2016
Spring: FSO staff identified FSOs who had more of an EM-leaning and introduced the FSOs to the KEEN team via email. The KEEN team then furthered the discussion with the FSOs both online and offline.
Summer: FSO staff continued to connect FSOs with the KEEN team, who then followed up online and offline. 
Fall: FSO staff continued to connect FSOs with the KEEN team, who then followed up online and offline. 

2017
Spring: Faculty have been assigned to investigate how to incorporate EM into engineering student organizations and our Fulton Undergraduate Research Initiative (FURI). KEEN awarded funding to the following Fulton Student Organizations: AZLoop.
Summer: Faculty identified opportunities for student org partnerships with KEEN, staff trained by KEEN team project coordinator on basics of EM and initiative goals, staff identified EM-related organizations with the KEEN program coordinator, online EM modules added to application process and status check materials
Fall: KEEN represented at the Student Engagement Open House and faculty meet-and-greet, where KEEN visited students representing their organizations to learn more about them; promoted KEEN in regular newsletters and social media postings; promoted the KEEN mini-grants to student organizations; integrated EM into FURI (EM terminology incorporated into poster language, etc.) KEEN awarded funding to the following Fulton Student Organizations: Air Devils, AIAA, iGEM, and SWEL.

2018
Spring: Continued connecting student organizations with the KEEN Team. KEEN awarded funding to the following Fulton Student Organizations: Fulton Student Council (FSC), NASA Space Grant Robotics (NASAGR), AZLoop, Sun Devil Racing (SDR) Baja Team, and Students for the Exploration and Development of Space ASU Rocketry Division (SEDS).
Summer: KEEN awarded funding to the following Fulton Student Organizations: Society of Women Engineers (SWE).
Fall: Nothing by time of publication.

NOTE: Supporting resources for this case study can be found within its companion KEEN card (link below), which is also where the community can discuss the case and its broader topic.

Integration outcomes

Stakeholders’ informal assessment has been that, from fall 2016 through spring 2017, the Fulton Student Organization program’s efforts to promote EM have been successful, as evidenced by several student organizations (and numerous FURI participants) having partnered with the KEEN Team. Broader and deeper integration of EM remains a goal, however, and formal evaluation results from Dr. Gary Lichtenstein’s team will inform decisions affecting which strategies and tactics are implemented.  

Future plans

The student organization program’s leadership believes it has only just begun to integrate EM.
But while it is awaiting formal evaluation results from the initiative evaluation team, it is also collecting anecdotal student feedback and exploring ways to continue increasing KEEN's presence at different event--and EM integration overall. This could be good way to interact with online students and an opportunity to fund graduate students

Further efforts under consideration include the following:

  • More fully integrating EM throughout the language of the program
  • Creating a video promoting KEEN/EM that can be included in the annual membership survey and asking respondents if they are interested in more information
  • Creating a Slack channel and/or using Skype for discussion of the online EM modules
  • Adding EM communication with industry partners--current and potential
  • Adding EM to recruitment of potential student organizations
  • Creating an EM module specifically for leadership-oriented groups (to help recruit and retain leaders--and help them become more effective leaders)
  • Adding EM to membership check materials, possibly by adding an interactive self-assessment quiz that asks questions about EM (using any terms) 
  • Adding EM to design more effective K-12 outreach materials, including with EFICS High School
  • Emphasizing how EM can support team building
  • Identifying EM in recruitment materials as a means of increasing diversity 

Considerations

The mission of ASU to continue being the most innovative university in the country has provided a distinct advantage throughout this integration effort, as EM naturally aligns with that mission, and ASU’s design aspirations include not only entrepreneurship but the entrepreneurial mindset. 

Challenges arose primarily when, early on, there was some uncertainty about expectations and funding available, both amounts and what the money could be spent on. That uncertainty was easily resolved through training follow-up; however, it underscored the importance of ensuring that student organization leadership understands KEEN funding, because that understanding helps them determine who to target for promoting partnering with KEEN. 

In addition to making sure that logistics are clearly defined, it’s important that student organization program leaders get as much training on EM as possible so that they can better understand how to promote it and implement it. Likewise, it’s important to identify clear goals early on so that progress can be effectively tracked. 

KEEN Team roles, particularly those of project manager and program coordinator, were essential to this integration effort--as was the support of the associate director of student engagement programs.