Twitter chat: Engineering Students as Drivers of Change 10/9/2013

Guest author and co-host:  Laurie Moore, Communications Lead for National Center for Engineering Pathways to Innovation (Epicenter) at Stanford University  epicenter.stanford.edu

Change in engineering education comes in many different forms and from many different sources. At Epicenter, we work to help engineering undergraduates combine their technical skills with an entrepreneurial mindset, and we’ve found that students are some of the most powerful and motivated drivers of change.

Students are the “customers,” organizing the demand side of the engineering education that universities and colleges provide. They can identify the opportunities and needs related to their education. Students are also positioned to bring change where they see it’s needed most. They are able to act quickly (often without official “permission”), and they can leverage their peer-to-peer marketing abilities to build strong movements among their fellow students. They care deeply about creating lasting change as much as faculty and administrators; just like their faculty and administrators, they want to leave a legacy at their schools.

Engineering students will be the inventors of our future. Their success in our economy and society is tied directly to their education and their freedom to grow and explore opportunities while in a safe and encouraging university environment. How can we empower more students to bring the change that they need to their schools? What could that change look like?

Join us on October 9, 2013 at 8 PM EST for a twitter chat to explore this together. Follow along using #BigBeacon. Students, educators, engineers, and all interested in engineering education are welcome.

About our guest host

The National Center for Engineering Pathways for Innovation (Epicenter) is infusing innovation and entrepreneurship into undergraduate engineering education in the United States. Epicenter’s University Innovation Fellows program empowers engineering student leaders to drive the change that’s needed most at their schools. Epicenter’s Communications Lead Laurie Moore will be tweeting questions from @EpicenterUSA; manager of Epicenter’s student programs Humera Fasihuddin will tweet from @ihumera; and several University Innovation Fellows will join the chat as well to lend their perspectives on the opportunities and challenges of being student changemakers.  More at epicenter.stanford.edu.