ChallengeAddressing post-pandemic social stress, cultural disconnect, and declining engagement in BU's innovation centers required reimagining how students reconnect, process stress, and access supportive, inclusive resources.
Social Stress and Cultural Disconnect:
The Boston University student community faced heightened social anxieties following nearly two years of pandemic-related isolation. This prolonged period disrupted students' ability to engage meaningfully in extracurricular activities, weakening the creative, innovative culture critical to the university's identity. Students needed a way to reconnect, process their stress, and re-establish relationships in a safe and supportive environment.
Declining Engagement in Innovation Centers:
Despite the variety of offerings from the ten innovate@BU Centers, students remained unaware or hesitant to engage with these resources. Misalignment between students’ perceived needs and the centers’ missions further discouraged participation, especially among non-business and creative students.
ProcessJanos led the development of an innovative, student-driven event designed to address these challenges. The program built momentum across multiple disciplines by collaborating with center directors, engaging student volunteers (“Scouts”), and launching strategic outreach initiatives.
Weeks 1–4: Crafted initial concepts and formed student leadership teams while refining messaging to ensure accessibility across BU’s diverse student body.
Cross-Center Collaboration:
Janos actively facilitated cooperation between nine innovation centers, emphasizing shared goals and resources to foster a sense of unity and inclusivity across campus.
Weeks 5–10: Designed and implemented visual marketing campaigns, built custom kiosks, and curated interactive experiences aligned with each center’s mission.
Week 11: Launched “Bazaar,” a vibrant, large-scale marketplace showcasing creative student projects, and collected actionable feedback for future programming.
SolutionThe solution culminated in the creation of the “Bazaar,” a dynamic, student-driven event featuring nine kiosks tailored to highlight each center's unique offerings.
High Engagement and Attendance: The event attracted 955–1,205 unique visits across the centers, with 82% of participants being first- and second-year students from diverse academic disciplines.
Attract through generosity and curiosity: Bazaar gave away 500 “curated pieces of clothing” and showcased dozens of student-designed and made creative projects that were offered for sale.
Interdisciplinary Connection: Bazaar fostered cross-disciplinary interactions by presenting innovation as accessible and relevant to all students, regardless of their majors or backgrounds.
Recommendations for Future Programming:
To sustain engagement, Janos proposed embedding Bazaar's energy into ongoing initiatives, fostering stronger student ownership of innovate@BU centers, and rebranding the centers to appeal broadly to young adults as creative and entrepreneurial hubs.
learningsWe learned that empowering diverse voices through their creative acts was the ideal strategy—one that directly fosters innovation, inclusion, and a thriving community.
Impact of Student Ownership: Empowering students to lead event planning and design increased their connection to the centers and fostered a sense of intellectual and creative ownership.
Need for Inclusive and Diverse Programming:
Bazaar demonstrated the importance of tailoring programming to diverse student groups. CFA students, for instance, required unique approaches to align entrepreneurial activities with their creative practices.
Broader Definitions of Entrepreneurship:
By redefining entrepreneurship as inclusive of all creative endeavors, Janos successfully engaged non-business students and encouraged cross-disciplinary participation.
Long-Term Sustainability Requires Investment:
While the event was a success, its discontinuation due to a lack of institutional support highlighted the need for dedicated resources to sustain such impactful initiatives.