Daniël van Vliet, Project Lead Impact at the Core, has been named a Stanford University d.school Faculty Innovation Fellow candidate. He is one of 18 from 15 higher education institutions across the globe who will participate in the Faculty Innovation Fellows program, a two-year program run by Stanford University’s Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (d.school). During this program, faculty and staff work to design unique projects that enhance the innovation ecosystems at their schools and help students gain vital real-world skills and mindsets.
Candidates in the program collaborate with one another to learn new change strategies, develop projects, gather feedback on ideas, and share resources. Candidates meet regularly in small groups to share the opportunities for change they identified as well as ideas for projects that can make the most impact for students at their schools. Candidates’ proposed projects include funding programs, new majors, new classes, activities that connect the campus and the community, and more.
“Educators in the Faculty Innovation Fellows program are doing this work because they see opportunities to improve their schools and because they believe in the power of change from the bottom up,” said Humera Fasihuddin, co-director of the University Innovation Fellows program. “In the last two years since the start of the program, Faculty Innovation Fellows have made great progress on their projects with mentorship and support from their peers. We can’t wait to see what this new cohort of change makers can accomplish!”
Rotterdam Impact Lab
Van Vliet was introduced to the d.school when he took part in the teaching and learning studio in the summer of 2022. During a European meet-up that followed, he was impressed by the effects of the Faculty Innovation Fellow Program on the acceleration of innovative projects. This urged him on to apply to become a fellow himself, as he realized that the fellowship would help him create a durable positive societal impact through educational innovation
During his time as a Faculty Innovation Fellow candidate, van Vliet will work on the so-called ‘Rotterdam Impact Lab’. “The strategic goal of the Erasmus University Rotterdam is ‘Creating positive societal impact’. We strive to understand and make progress towards solving complex societal challenges, with alignment in our core activities of education and research and in close cooperation with our local and global partners. Currently there is no physical space on campus or in the city of Rotterdam that can serve as an active learning lab and can therefore fulfill the needs that are already present or emerging regarding impact-driven education. If we want to tackle the societal urgencies in the city and its region, we need a flexible space where students, teachers and stakeholders can actively work on this together. “By creating a “Rotterdam Impact Lab”, students, researchers and society alike can work together on the current and future urgencies that play a role in the City of Rotterdam and beyond. The Rotterdam Impact Lab will act first and foremost as an active learning space, but also as a ‘convergent’ meeting space where we can accelerate interdisciplinary and impact-driven education as a whole.”
Each member of the program will have the opportunity to publish an article in the University Innovation Fellows journal, Change Forward, detailing their project and their progress. Those who complete the program will be launched as Faculty Innovation Fellows in March 2024.
The candidates in the 2022-2024 Faculty Innovation Fellows program are:
* Ozgun Burcu Rodopman, Bo?aziçi University
* Daniël van Vliet, Erasmus University Rotterdam
* Luise Degen, Hamburg University of Technology
* Svenja Damberg, Hamburg University of Technology
* Christoph Winkler, Iona University
* Seán Ronan McCarthy, James Madison University
* John Bannister, Johnson C. Smith University
* Bahare Afrahi, Kingston University
* Melanie Lewis, Macquarie University
* Laura Jayne Parson, North Dakota State University
* Hallie Ann Neupert, Oregon Institute of Technology (Oregon Tech)
* Prashant Atmakuri, Prasad V Potluri Siddhartha Institute of Technology
* Vonda LaKecia Reed, Shaw University
* Terrance McNeil, Tennessee State University
* Carlos Letts, Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas
* Maria Pia Felipa Ibarra, Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas
* Shirley Vanessa Villanes Borja, Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas
* Jeremiah Harrison, Utah Valley University
Learn more about the Faculty Innovation Fellows program online.
- More information
Impact at the Core is a central innovation program at Erasmus University Rotterdam that works on education within which students work together on solutions for societal problems. We do this by designing, strengthening and co-developing initiatives for so-called impact-driven education. By that, we mean education in which our positive contribution to society plays a central role.
