Rose-Hulman Secures $2.3M Grant
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowA nearly $2.3 million grant will boost entrepreneurship programs at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. President Jim Conwell says the partnership with the Wisconsin-based Kern Family Foundation builds on a relationship that could “transform undergraduate engineering education.” Editor's Note: A previous version incorrectly valued the grant at $2.5 million.
November 12, 2014
News Release
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. – The Kern Family Foundation of Waukesha, Wisconsin, has awarded Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology a $2.25 million grant to encourage further development of entrepreneurially-minded learning (EML) programs through educational practice, faculty engagement, and student experiences from 2015 through 2018.
Rose-Hulman is a select member of the Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network (KEEN), a national effort by The Kern Family Foundation to align U.S. private engineering colleges to produce graduates who possess enterprising attitudes, resolute integrity, and entrepreneurial mindsets – characterized by exercising curiosity, seeking connections, and creating value.
One of The Kern Family Foundation's key goals, shared by Rose-Hulman, is to offer students a vision of the breadth of their possible futures and prepare them to identify unexpected opportunities to create value, whether technical, societal, or economic. The program emphasizes the development of a curiosity about our changing world, and connecting technical skills to societal needs and opportunities.
“Rose-Hulman and The Kern Family Foundation have established a base for a partnership that could transform undergraduate engineering education,” said Rose-Hulman President Jim Conwell. “We share a common interest in instilling an entrepreneurial mindset in undergraduate engineering students. This is an important step forward in creating the next generation of leaders in the American workforce.”
The grant will support the following educational initiatives:
-Engaging faculty in multi-disciplinary groups to create EML-infused courses in each academic discipline, including humanities.
-Supporting the activities for a Professor of Practice and staff within the EML program.
-Building vision for the KEEN/Rose-Hulman Case Study Initiative, started through a Kern Family Foundation grant in 2013. This will become a national resource for entrepreneurially-minded case studies.
-Educating faculty about EML principles through a series of workshops, conferences, and renewal experiences.
-Exposing rising high-school seniors to EML through Rose-Hulman’s successful Operation Catapult summer enrichment program in science and engineering.
• Using Rose-Hulman’s Making Academic Change Happen Workshop to educate national engineering educators and leaders in the subtleties of leading change within an academic setting.
• Expanding Rose-Hulman’s student Leadership Advancement Program.
“The entrepreneurial mindset is a central attribute in the development of a Rose-Hulman graduate,” said Richard Stamper, PhD, dean of faculty. “The EML ecosystem is an area of focus at Rose-Hulman as we continue to improve the value proposition for our prospective and current students.”
Craig Downing, PhD, head of Rose-Hulman’s Department of Engineering Management, added, “We know that Rose-Hulman will only be able to deliver on the institute’s mission, and prepare students for success, if we are able to anticipate and adjust to the rapid changes in the global economy and within engineering industries. With support from the Kern Family Foundation, through KEEN, we have begun developing the tools and resources required to create an EML ecosystem at Rose-Hulman.”
About Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
Founded in 1874, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology is dedicated to preparing its students with the world’s best undergraduate science, engineering, and mathematics education in an environment infused with innovation, intellectual rigor, and individualized attention. The college, located in Terre Haute, Indiana, has an enrollment of approximately 2,200 undergraduate students and 100 graduate students. A national survey of engineering department deans and senior faculty, conducted by U.S. News & World Report, has consistently ranked Rose-Hulman and its academic programs No. 1 in undergraduate engineering education. Six of the institute’s professors were featured in The Princeton Review’s Best 300 Professors book, the only institution of higher learning in Indiana to be included. Learn more at www.rose-hulman.edu.