The GW Hatchet released an article yesterday announcing a $13.2 million boost in funds for the Corcoran, Bell and Tompkins halls centered on science and engineering. The Board of Trustees were quick to approve of the upgrades to the academic buildings on Friday, calling for $3.2 million of the budget to be used on Corcoran Hall alone, which will begin renovations over the next year.
Annually there will be $3 million spent for the improvements over the course of three to five years with the newly reconstructed buildings to be occupied by the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences and the School of Engineering and Applied Science.
The most exciting addition will be the $275 million dollar space dedicated to a high-tech lab to be used by students and faculty alike. This increase in fund allocation for these innovative centers on campus will only further the push for students to be more involved in tech, something that we startups love to hear.
Over the past few months I have constantly become caught up in conversation with heads of incubators, leaders of startups and interns discussing the disconnect between college students and the startup scene here in D.C. The only reason that I became aware of the startup world was because of a job posting on my school's site, but otherwise I would never have found the place that I love to call my second home today, ITC.
The core of the problem lies in the education sphere. At most universities today, students are taught to work with others to foster an idea to attach onto an already existent working business. Students are given the task of constructing a research paper, reporting on current findings rather than producing their own.
What students are not instructed to do is foster their own concept, make it grow, fail, see slight success and watch it fail again. Eventually success comes knocking on your doorstep, but colleges are not willing to admit to students that failing is necessary to create something worthy of all that time spent toiling over theories and the excess amount of sweat from the frustrating process.
This is not to speak of all universities.
I have personally seen strong efforts over at University of Maryland. The university supports their tech enthused students and gives them the space, money and time to invent something with a shock and awe effect, sure to lead on to future success and ultimately boosting the university's status as a transformative premise for groundbreaking work.
Through writing this article I have come to the conclusion that this is the type of dilemma that has to be reported upon more frequently. As I scanned the mass amount of information in D.C. about metropolitan area colleges, I noticed a lack in coverage about what is being done to address the disconnect between higher education and the startup world. I hope to be able to begin interviews with well-respected people within the D.C. tech scene to gain a greater perspective about what needs to be done, how this problem can be improved upon, and what type of education students should be taught in order to be able to prosper in a startup.
If you or anyone you know is interested in partaking in this process, please email me at molly@inthecapital.com. I would love to hear what you have to say and I'm sure ITC readers would as well. Thanks!
[Image via Aluratek]
