Corporate Scholars Programs

Overview

The Corporate Scholars Program is a challenging program that requires students to both represent their discipline on their team and to step way out of their comfort zone. The class is structured to mimic an actual work environment, so therefore stresses different skills than a traditional academic class.

Corporate Scholar Programs place students into interdisciplinary teams of 4-6 members to work on projects for their sponsoring organizations.

Projects are tailored to the interests and skills of the team. Projects can be in any of a variety of areas, such as: theoretical research and analysis, problem diagnosis and repair, product design, prototyping, application development, demonstrations, simulations, and modeling.

What qualities make for a successful Corporate Scholar?

Individual qualities of the successful Corporate Scholar are:

• Strong academic skills in their major field(s) of study.
  To contribute to a multidisciplinary team, Scholars need to have a solid foundation in their individual discipline.
• Ability to work well in a team.
  The projects are challenging and require intense collaboration. No one person will have all the necessary skills to complete the project. Scholars will improve their teamwork skills as part of the program, but to start they need to be willing to work in a team environment.
• Ability to learn on their own.
  The projects are real-world, which means that the required skills may fall outside the existing skillset of the team. Scholars need to be able to explore new domains and quickly come up to speed in subjects outside their comfort zone.
• Communication skills.
  Scholars need solid written and oral communication skills. Scholars will improve their communication skills as part of the program, but they need to start with the ability to explain their point of view to team members.
• Professionalism.
  The Scholars serve as representatives of WSU and will be interacting with industry employees, managers, and executives. Scholars therefore need to conduct themselves in a professional way that reflects positively on the University.
• Willing to commit to the two year program.
  Students need to understand the requirements and be able to commit to meeting them.