Major, Jamison named 2024 Engineering Unleashed Fellows

Two Rowan University faculty members in the Henry M. Rowan College of Engineering have received national recognition for innovative education practices aimed at preparing engineering graduates to identify opportunities for creating positive economic, societal and personal value throughout their lives.

Justin Major, Ph.D., and Cassandra Jamison, Ph.D., both assistant professors in the Experiential Engineering Education Department, were selected by the Engineering Unleashed community as 2024 Engineering Unleashed Fellows. They are among 31 engineering faculty from 27 institutions across the United States to receive the honor.

The Engineering Unleashed Faculty Development Program highlights entrepreneurially minded learning as central to the development of engineering graduates prepared to meet the challenges and opportunities of a rapidly changing world. 

Each year, the program attracts more than 300 faculty who create educational resources advancing the mission to integrate the entrepreneurial mindset (EM) into practices that benefit their students, their institutions and greater society. As part of the workshop, participants identify potential projects and hone their ideas with coaches for up to one year, after which select faculty are nominated and named Engineering Unleashed Fellows.

Their recognition also includes institutional awards for their research from the Kern Family Foundation. 

Major will use his award to study differences in the ways Rowan faculty and different student groups think about the “3Cs” or mental habits necessary for an entrepreneurial mindset: curiosity, connection and creating value. Ultimately, he hopes to develop teaching resources that empower all engineering students “to create the change they want to see in the world.”

That’s critical, he said, given the need in engineering to design for all communities in an equitable way. 

“There are tons of underrepresented students in engineering,” Major said. “We want them to be able to be themselves and have the engineering careers they want to have.” 

Jamison will use her award to explore how Rowan students talk about their first- and second-year engineering clinic courses in their professional materials, like resumes, online job profiles and elevator pitches. She hopes to help students seeking paid internships before graduation or those who don’t yet have job experience.

“I have a couple of goals with this project,” Jamison said. “The first is to understand if there’s ways to help students craft the way they talk about their experiences in a way that resonates more with employers. I think that the concepts in the entrepreneurial mindset might be helpful in that. But I also think it can point to some areas where we might be able to improve the experiences in the classrooms themselves.”