Florida International University
EN-13: Community Stakeholder Engagement

The Office of Engagement applies the following strategy to all partnerships. It should also be noted that as each partnership is different and has different needs, a customized framework is developed for each one.

At the CORE, The Office of Engagement's role is two-fold; to serve as the great dot-connector for the university and be the eyes and ears in the community, authentically understanding what is happening and what is to come… Digging deeper and distilling.
CONNECT: the scholarship of faculty to the challenges in the world around us; students to the myriad of opportunities to be found in our community, that sometimes means influencing stakeholders to create opportunities such as internships and fellowships; the expertise in the university to the stakeholders in the community;
COLLABORATE: by building a more collaborative community, we create real solutions to the challenges our community is facing. We facilitate large collaboratives focused on students achievement at every level and economic development – ACCESS, ALC, LSSF, TDN
RESOURCE: galvanize resources for the university… We are not necessarily a fundraising unit but we generate resources to scale programs and hold events that have significant community impact. Such as, scaling Education Effect, hosting Black Tech Week and Startup Weekends, Lifees.
Serve as the REALTIME GAUGE outside the walls of the academy. We spend the majority of our time in the community connecting with stakeholders – public sector, private sector, government, CBOs, community leaders and influencers – both understanding needs and opportunities and generating new ideas.

The Office of Engagement seeks to be involved throughout the entire community by partnering with multiple Chambers of Commerce, being part of community forums, and involved with public and private companies. The Advisory Council for the Office consists of 30 community leaders from around South Florida. These community leaders represent different groups and economic backgrounds. FIU is also very involved with the Beacon Council, which offers economic and business development services that support a strong and sustainable future for Miami-Dade County.

http://www.beaconcouncil.com

Metropolitan Center
Local South Florida Chambers of Commerce
One Community One Goal Academic Leaders Council
Miami Dade County Public School System

Initiatives from the FIU Office of Engagement:

LSSF continues to focus its programming and activities on supporting the growth of life sciences in the region, with the goal of increasing student opportunities in this arena. LSSF continues to host monthly webinars with renowned researchers. Recordings of all webinars are available on the LSSF website.
4th Annual STEM Undergrad Research Symposium - held on April 2, 2016 at Broward College and it was a wonderful event for LSSF’s students! 80+ LSSF member students presented their original research in the STEM fields. Oral and poster presentations were critiqued by volunteer judges from South Florida universities, colleges and research institutions. A three-way tie for first place in the poster competition, FIU’s own DOE fellow, Mr. Alejandro Hernandez, snagged one of the top spots! State Representative Kristin Jacobs spoke, urging about the real threat that sea level rise poses to our communities. The Honorable Chip LaMarca, Broward County Commissioner, addressed those in attendance as well.
Lifees @eMerge – held on April 18th at eMerge Americas. Over 200 guests joined LSSF for a luncheon to honor life sciences companies and hear from keynote Dan Cane of Modernizing Medicine and a panel of STEM and Innovation experts.

ACCESS - As the nationally recognized partnership between FIU and Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS) continues into its fifth year, more than 150 individuals from both institutions are working in issue-specific groups to address the diverse educational needs and opportunities in our region. Significant effort is being made to evaluate longitudinal data and assess the impact of our collective efforts towards student achievement, graduation and post-secondary enrollment. Four pillars have been identified that will link the partnership to institutional strategic priorities and goals: 1) Operational Accelerators 2) Enhancing Student Potential 3) Pathways to Student Success and 4) Educator Empowerment and Development. As we continue to refine our work with Miami-Dade County Public Schools, we are exploring the opportunities to create a triangular ACCESS Program with Broward County Public Schools and Broward College.

City of Miami Beach Partnership - Engagement has collaborated with other departments across the university and City of Miami Beach to forge a dynamic partnership leveraging our unique assets—geography, history, demographics and intellectual capital—to address the city’s most pressing challenges. The partnership is driven by workgroups focused on: Arts, Culture & History; Florida Coastal Resilience & Adaptation; Youth & Education Development; and Transportation.

Currently, the Office is working on expanding Dual Enrollment at Miami Beach High, and working to expand our paid internship program by adding paid research assistantships – for graduate and PhD level students.

The Talent Development Network, the regional internship program created in partnership with six other academic institutions in Miami-Dade County, has progressed in recent months from conceptualization to actualization with a focus on delivering top local talent to leading industry partners. Now at the mid-point of the two-year pilot, more than 158 employers have registered at the online portal, TDNmiami.com. Across TDN’s partner institutions, more than 700 students have registered on the site. More than 1200 applications processed, and more than 180 internships positions have been filled. In addition, we attend every career and internship fair from our seven partner institutions to recruit for our employers, some of whom do not have the time to participate or can only participate in a single fair. TDN has also started to acquire membership in various local chambers so that we can attend education and business committee meetings to promote the program. On a monthly basis, TDN convenes career services representatives from the member institutions to discuss progress, best practices, and goals.

In partnership with The New Tropic and the Arts & Entertainment District, hosted the “The Miami Job Flea”, a job and internship fair for students and young professionals across Miami-Dade County. More than 1,000 students indicated they would attend. The event was an enormous success in attracting Miami’s young talent and connecting them with jobs and internship opportunities with employers as diverse as the Miami Heat, Adrienne Arsht Center, Uber, and more. The event culminated in an hour long lightning round speaker series on talent in Miami featuring the Knight Foundation’s Matt Haggman, FIU VP for Engagement Saif Ishoof, and Pandwe Gibson of EcoTech Visions.
The event directly led to:
20 new internships being posted on TDNMiami.com
25 new employer registrations
53 new registered students
115 applications processed