North Carolina State University | USASBE 2021 Excellence in Co-Curricular Innovation Award Recipient
The Social Innovation Fellows program is a vital part of NC State’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, supporting students interested
in social change and those seeking purpose and community engagement in their work and personal lives during their years as students and beyond.
Each year, a maximum of thirty Fellows are selected through a highly competitive application process. We accept applications from every full-time student and every college at the university, from first year to PhD. Fellows participate in a rigorous team-based program over the course of an academic year to learn skills to become social entrepreneurs and change leaders. Staff curates these teams to be multidisciplinary, with a mix of academic levels and programs to enable students to work across
typical academic silos. Each team is matched with a “venture partner” to study a problem deeply and design a solution to a real world challenge with focus areas inspired by the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Fellows are required to attend monthly Innovation Labs, meet regularly with their team and venture partner, and attend monthly “mini labs” which deliver critical technical skill development. Innovation lab content includes the discovery and application of human-centered design and systems thinking, theory of change, adaptive leadership and stakeholder analysis
along with technical skills to design and build solutions. Venture partners include nonprofit organizations, for-profit social enterprises, and private industry. Our goal is to annually curate a diverse slate of five to six real world social problems connected with local, statewide and global enterprises, for the teams to learn and practice social entrepreneurship.
Teams and projects are supported by a talented and devoted group of “senior fellows,” or previous cohort members who volunteer to serve as peer mentors and lead a team of new fellows, “team mentors,” or campus and community leaders with multidisciplinary expertise, and a Brain Trust consisting of over 40 local leaders and entrepreneurs who have volunteered
their expertise and resources.
Teams receive micro-investments of $1,000 per team for prototyping, research, presentations, and design implementation.