The new BUild Lab IDG Capital Student Innovation Center, which opened its doors for the first time last week, is a central component in Boston University’s new plan to promote student initiatives. On Wednesday, Innovate@BU hosted a student club fair at the BUild Lab, showcasing student-run clubs that have an emphasis on innovation and impact.
Jenny Li, a senior in the Questrom School of Business and one of the student program assistants at Innovate@BU, said the goal of the club fair concept was to host a sort of “mini-Splash,” showcasing clubs that were specifically focused on innovation and having an impact on the community.
“[We wanted to show] how we’re supporting them, and how students and clubs on campus already are doing this great work, and we just wanted to highlight them and support them even more,” Li said. “This gives students another opportunity to join clubs they otherwise may not have heard of before.”
Li said the club fair had been in the works for months, since before the end of last semester, as organizers sought to engage innovative student clubs with the BU community.
Innovate@BU Executive Director Gerald Fine said the club fair reinforced Innovate@BU’s mission to encourage and empower students to do impactful things while they are students at BU.
“Our job is to encourage people to reach beyond the classroom to have an impact on the community, be it the BU community or the Boston community,” Fine said. “We want to make sure that students are aware of all the great opportunities that the clubs on campus are giving them.”
Student groups at the fair focused on topics ranging from app-building to environmental issues to public relations.
Questrom junior Paulina Giron, the marketing director of the BU Fashion and Retail Association, said her group takes an innovative look at the fashion industry.
“We’re the only outlet for fashion at BU, and we wanted to provide a holistic approach to the fashion industry and to get a better idea of what everything the fashion industry entails,” Giron said. “It’s not just about clothes and designers. It’s about the retail side, the marketing side, the industry side and the production and everything.”
Some of the clubs that participated, like React to Film Boston University, represented impact more that strictly innovation.
React to Film member Qianqian Zhao, a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences, said the club screens documentaries on social and political issues to engage students in discussion.
“It’s all focused on creating a social impact on campus and inspiring students to engage in social discussion,” Zhao said “[We’re] focused less on film theory and [more] on social justice.”
BU STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math) member and CAS senior Julia Pan said she thinks it is important to have clubs focused on innovation at BU because sometimes those topics aren’t completely explored in the courses that students take.
“When you enter college, sometimes your focus is just on your coursework, and you don’t really recognize the ways in which it can be applied beyond the classroom,” Pan said. “These spaces are really important because they involve students in things that they won’t be exposed to in their day-to-day lives.”
CAS junior Francis Frimpong, a member of the UNICEF club at BU, said he thinks supporting clubs that have a focus on impact and innovation is the foundation for a better tomorrow.
“I think everyone who comes to college definitely has this mindset of trying to change the world and to make the future a better place,” Frimpong said. “Having a lovely space like this and people who want to do that — it fosters a brighter future where people can live a life they want to.”
Questrom junior Shena Lohardjo, the lead project manager for the business group BU Venture Accelerator, said she was enthusiastic about the Innovate@BU’s push toward innovation.
“Compared to other schools, entrepreneurship and innovation has definitely been lacking at BU,” Lohardjo said. “So I think that now, with BUild Lab, it marks the beginning of BU trying to really change that … Being in this ecosystem in Boston, innovation is the most important thing.”
Daniel Legmann, a program intern at Innovate@BU who focuses on international student engagement, said emphasizing entrepreneurship is especially important in today’s world.
“Entrepreneurship is the now — it’s hot,” Legmann said, “especially in such an innovative society and where things are changing … There are a lot of industries where improvements can be made all the time.”
Li said she thinks innovation is an incredibly important skill not just for work, but for life.
“[Innovation] is not just a hard skill that you do at a 9-to-5 job,” Li said. “It’s really critical thinking ability — the ability to problem-solve creatively — so having this initiative and putting such an importance on it just goes to show how much we value and care about what students do outside of BU.”
