The George Washington University’s Innovation Task Force is launching a scholarship competition this fall that invites graduate and undergraduate students to pitch ideas that will reduce costs or generate revenue of $1 million or more per year for the university. The competition reflects ITF’s goals of increasing GW’s investments in learning, research and student life by $60 million per year by 2015.
Students can participate in the competition as individuals or in groups of up to four members. The winning idea will be rewarded with a $50,000 scholarship that can be used toward tuition and room and board. The prize will be split evenly among students if they choose to enter as a group. Students can submit multiple $1 million ideas, as long as each one is in line with the university’s strategic objectives and is a “positive sum game,” meaning the idea can be implemented without negatively impacting offices or individuals that are not directly involved.
ITF modeled the scholarship after the GW Business Plan Competition. Students will compete in up to three rounds until one winning initiative is picked. Participants will submit an Idea Overview Statement and a two-page executive summary by Oct. 25 in the first round. Contestants who move to the second round will develop an eight- to 12-page business plan detailing background research, operational considerations, implementation processes, financial analyses and more. Four to eight finalists will then lead 15-minute presentations before senior executives and leaders at GW.
“We have great hopes that an innovation buzz will be generated university-wide with this scholarship. We have such incredible minds in our student population, and we hope to harness that while at the same time providing additional financial assistance to GW students,” said David Lawlor, senior associate vice president for finance.
ITF was established by President Steven Knapp in 2009 to bring faculty, staff and students together to improve GW’s business processes and advance academic priorities. Twice a year, the ITF Exploration Committee meets to come up with new ideas that focus on three key areas: effectiveness, efficiency and innovation. The ideas are then discussed and evaluated by the GW community at ITF Showcases.
More than 60 initiatives have emerged from ITF, ranging from new online programs to implementing cloud data systems. These initiatives are expected to bring in recurring savings and revenue enhancements that will be reinvested into research, faculty and academic programs and support.
Christopher Kim, B.A. ’13, a first-year graduate student and a Presidential Administrative Fellow working with ITF, said the goal of the competition is to encourage more members of the GW community to work together and take part in the innovation ITF is leading. Students who make it to the semifinals will be paired with mentors, who can be parents, alumni, faculty or staff. The collaboration is an opportunity to get everyone excited about what they can contribute, Mr. Kim said.
Students, he added, are in a unique position because they can use their GW experiences and lessons from the classroom to make a difference. He listed students in the Graduate School of Education and Human Development as an example and said the competition presents a chance for them to apply their expertise in higher education to real-life scenarios.
“Students bring a very different perspective when it comes to moving GW forward,” Mr. Kim said. “The competition gives them a chance to make a difference at GW and invest in the university’s constant improvements. It helps foster GW’s culture of innovation and turning knowledge into action.”