2023-2024 Chaifetz Fellows to Focus on Entrepreneurship, Statics and Dynamics

05/04/2023

The 2023-2024 academic year will see the 16th cohort of Chaifetz Fellows across Saint Louis University. The Chaifetz Fellows promote entrepreneurship education and programming across the SLU campus.

To date, more than 100 undergraduate and 100 graduate courses across the SLU campus have embedded entrepreneurship skills, one of the highest numbers in the nation according to The Princeton Review and Entrepreneur Magazine.

Two new Fellows are being announced from the Chaifetz School of Business and the School of Science and Engineering (SSE). They are:

• Hayley Johnston (Chaifetz Center for Entrepreneurship) Developing a core course on entrepreneurial identity and self-discovery.
• Danahe Marmolejo, Ph.D. (Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering) Adding design thinking elements, experiential exercises and supporting technology to introductory engineering courses in Statics (ESCI2100) and Dynamics (ESCI2150).

Each will receive a $2,500 grant for use in developing and deploying entrepreneurship elements in their classes.

Johnson and Marmolejo bring the total number of Fellows to 45 across 20 different departments. Including the KEEN and Chaifetz Fellows, SLU has more than 100 faculty involved in aspects of entrepreneurship education.

In addition to the two new Fellows, 13 veteran Fellows (grant recipients from prior years) will receive $1,000 grants to reinforce and expand their existing work infusing their classes with entrepreneurial ideas and skills. The expansion from the usual 10 to 13 veteran Fellows was supported by Barnali Gupta, Ph.D., dean of the Richard A. Chaifetz School of Business, to further increase cross-campus entrepreneurship.

The veteran Fellow recipients are:

• Greg Beabout, Ph.D. (Philosophy, Fellow since 2014) Adding people in entrepreneurial jobs to the job shadowing component of Philosophy of Law (PHIL3430).
• Dan Brewer (Nutrition and Dietetics, Fellow since 2013) Student project seed funding for the Innovation in Dietetics class (DIET5350).
• Vincent Casaregola, Ph.D. (English, Fellow since 2021) Developing a new course on “The Avant Garde Artist as Entrepreneur.”
• Sarah Coffin, Ph.D. (Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Fellow since 2016) Adding material to connect sustainability and entrepreneurship in the Introduction to Environmental Science class (EAS1080).
• Sri Condoor, Ph.D. (Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, Fellow since 2009) Conducting monthly workshops at SSE on the entrepreneurial mindset.
• Dannielle Davis, Ph.D. (Higher Education, Fellow since 2017) Adding entrepreneurial content to Social Justice and the College Student (EDH5640) and Social Theory and Social Justice (EDH6640).
• Katie Devany (Leadership and Organizational Behavior, Fellow since 2016) Supporting guest speakers in the Introduction to Entrepreneurship course (ORLD3000).
• Srikanth Gururajan, Ph.D. (Aerospace Engineering, Fellow since 2017) Restart the SLUDronES (Student Led, University based Drone Entrepreneurship @ SLU) Club.
• Jin Huang, Ph.D. (Social Work, Fellow since 2019) Adding financial capability content to help social work students support their low-income clients to initiate entrepreneurship.
• Jeff Ma, Ph.D. (Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, Fellow since 2022) Continued support of student design teams in the Mechatronics class (MENG4450)
• Mike Markee, Ph.D. (Physical Therapy & Athletic Training, Fellow since 2016) Adding pitch exercises to Applied Administration and Management (DPT6178) and Departmental Administration (DPT7077)
• Scott Sell, Ph.D. (Biomedical Engineering, Fellow since 2016) Planning and launching the new MS in STEM Entrepreneurship.
• Jintong Tang, Ph.D. (Management, Fellow since 2009) Create a doctoral seminar on entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship research.

Support for the Chaifetz Fellows Program comes from the Office of the Dean of the Richard A. Chaifetz School of Business. The Program was initiated as the Coleman Fellows with funding from the Coleman Foundation of Chicago. The Program Director is Jerome Katz, Ph.D., the Brockhaus Endowed Chair of Entrepreneurship.