For the Provost Innovation Student Fellowship we were all tasked with creating our own entrepreneurial initiative within the UO ecosystem. I saw this as an opportunity to address both the lack of diversity in the school's entrepreneurial ecosystem as well as create more opportunities for sustainable innovation. My goals are to design and provide resources, services, and/or systems for students (with a focus on targeting underserved communities) at UO to pursue sustainable innovation practices. This could end up looking like designing an accessible innovation hub that provides the necessary service and support for students to get their ideas up and running. Or designing a database that provides resources for underserved communities that pertain to entrepreneurship, innovation, and sustainability.

My aim with diversifying the university’s entrepreneurial system does not stop at the integration process like many diversity initiatives. I want to provide exposure and education for BIPOC youth to pursue and gain experience in sustainable innovation practices. Moreover, I want to create a safe environment that empowers and supports them in those endeavors. This means making these opportunities and resources accessible.

A big challenge throughout this project has been trying to reframe what diversity and inclusion means within the university’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. In the 2019 U of O Innovation and Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Final Report and Proposed Strategic Plan by Andrew Nelson, it does have a diversity initiative that aims to tackle the lack of diversity within entrepreneurship at the university. Although, the only key metric that alludes to increasing diversity is the “diversity of participants at events.” I find this to be problematic because achieving diversity should not be some sort of quota that needs to obtain to be showcased that we are on the right track. Instead, we need to tackle the underlying issues that create the lack of diversity in the first place.

So, how do we address this issue? Attending “The Startup Community Way: A Conversation with Author Ian Hathaway,” Ian brought up a great point that it is important to not support underserved communities but to actively bring them into the communtiy. This is imperative because creating a welcoming environment to underrepresented groups within the ecosystem is important because it instills a sense of belonging to the group that will allow them to feel safe and seen. To achieve this, organizations and institutions need to make opportunities and events accessible. This means making sure that barriers to involvement need to be teared down. Organizations need to take into consideration time, financial, and transportation limitations; keep in mind that a lot of these limitations come from systemic societal problems which is also important to address. In addition, providing assistance such as language interpreting and ensuring that events are inclusive for people with disabilities​ ​will open up the doors to more people to access the event.