In our third week of introducing you to Octane Foundation for Innovation and Octane’s philanthropy, we wanted to showcase one of our newest initiatives, Octane STEM Fellows. This program is sponsored by Broadcom Foundation and supports university students from underrepresented groups, with a STEM background and inclination towards entrepreneurship. 2020 is the inaugural year for this program.
Octane’s STEM Fellows Program identifies high potential graduate and undergraduate university students from underrepresented groups, who have a STEM background with an inclination towards entrepreneurship. This program features training of basic entrepreneurship leadership concepts as well as peer interaction and provides access to Octane programming as well as the opportunity to attend one of Octane’s leading conferences. The program duration lasts one year.
In addition, the STEM Fellows Program is for students who to participate in the innovation ecosystem and want to network with entrepreneurs, investors, key strategic advisors, university faculty and administrators. Students that are selected will take part in a cohort training that will cover basic entrepreneur leadership skills and concepts that include: how to give a short business pitch of an idea, why entrepreneurship is important; networking tips and advice. The cohort will be encouraged to collaborate with each other Octane events and throughout the year.
In order for a student to be selected as an Octane STEM Fellow, they must meet the following criteria:
Octane has partnered with two universities, University of California, Irvine and Cal State University, Fullerton, for its first cohort starting in September 2020 (this was pushed back from May due to the COVID-19 pandemic). We will continue to expand to additional universities as we develop the program.