What: Go@CMU - Project Kick Start
Why: Connect your students with great projects
When: First Friday 5:30-9pm of Spring and Fall Semester
Where: Maverick Innovation Center - 730 Mesa Avenue, Grand Junction, CO 81501
What is it?
Go@CMU is a mixer event the first Friday evening and an optional startup event Saturday morning of each semester. It is a way to create semester or longer collaborative teams that work to solve community problems. It is intended to be fun and effective to quickly kick-start projects which are commitments from students (as part of classes and/or internships) to create solutions for business, government, non-profit, and campus needs.
What do I get from it?
By encouraging your students through this event, they will find impactful, engaging and collaborative projects. It should help you with project discovery, help your students by the connections they make and impacts they have, and help the community through campus collaboration.
What do I need to do?
For the event to be successful, collaborators need to connect. This means a few things for your class:
- Delay absolute commitments of students to projects until after Go.
- Encourage your students to attend at least the Friday evening event. Even if they have a “plan A” for their project, ask them to come with an open mind.
- Encourage your identified project clients to attend and pitch their ideas. It is intended to be fun and productive and a small trade for the possibility of a semester or longer student commitment.
- Attend. Your feedback on the nature of the pitched project and its scope with respect to the goals of your course, and help redirect projects and students towards successful outcomes.
What are we not?
A success for us is a student with a set of contacts and some broader perspective, even if they choose to go with a “plan A” they had in mind before the event. We don’t make promises or force anyone’s hand, just ask you to help with the learning process.