Innovation Scholars build connections and gain valuable hands-on learning experiences that are transferable across majors and degree programs. Take a look at what some previous Innovation Scholars have explored:
Innovation Scholars: Past Projects
Community-based projects developed by previous Innovation Scholars
just and healthy food community celebration
Food plays an important role in creating community as well as shaping and reflecting culture. To recognize the prominent fall food celebration in the United States (Thanksgiving), a 2023 Innovation Scholar project was to organize an expo to celebrate the role that food plays in cultural acceptance and sustainability in the Ithaca College community. At the expo, attendees visited with representatives from organizations on and around campus, tried some new (and unusual) foods, and talked about how food is all around us and brings us together.
"The expo made it feel like everything we learned in class was put into action. Like learning about bugs, culture, agriculture, and environmentally friendly practices. It all came together, and it was an amazing way to conclude the program. This also let me experience what creating a fair would be like and the responsibility that came with it and the amount of work that is needed."
2023 Innovation Scholar
Ithaca College Food Rescue Project
Innovation Scholars from 2022 were interested in food justice and decided that food access would be the goal of their community project. As a result, they designed and organized Ithaca College Food Rescue, a project in which leftover unserved food from Ithaca College dining halls was repackaged and donated to a local non-profit organization, the Friendship Donation Network, for distribution. The program was so successful that in 2023, it was taken over by Ithaca College Eco-Reps. It continues to donate thousands of meals each semester to support people in need in the local community.
Media and Meaning for “tweenage” kids
Innovation Scholars from 2023 were interested in how meaning is derived from the media messages we consume and create and how and why messaging works.
Scholars were struck by learning that media is everywhere and has a particularly strong influence on kids. To pursue this interest, Scholars developed a program of engaging exercises for “tweens” to give them tools to interpret media. The “tweens” became “Media Detectives” who were challenged by the Innovation Scholars to consider the influence of marketing, packaging, and logos, as well as how to identify bias and use social media safely.
Our activities inspired creative thinking from the kids, which caused them to actually draw very similar conclusions that we drew in our own courses.
Innovation Scholar on working with “tweens” (2023)