Message from the President

It is amazing to me when I think about how much Rose-Hulman’s presence has grown globally.

As we move forward to build the Institute’s next long-term strategic plan set to launch as part of our

BY ROBERT A. COONS, PRESIDENT coons@rose-hulman.edu

150th anniversary in 2024, we have seen the direct impact of our efforts to achieve that goal set nearly a decade ago. We have a more globally connected alumni base and an international enrollment that has expanded beyond our traditional network.

In addition to our strong domestic enrollment numbers, fall 2022 brought us a first-year class of international students from a record 19 different countries ranging from China to India and Greece to Brazil. The quality of our students continues to grow as well. The academic profiles of our most recent classes are some of the strongest we have ever had.

We have more international alumni than ever before, as well as a number of domestic alumni living and working abroad. You will read more about both in the pages of this issue of Echoes.

There has also been an intentional focus to enhance the international experiences for our students with continued international exchange partnerships and new offerings, like our first-year international study abroad programs and our Global Engineering and the Social Context course (story on Pages 10-12). This past May, we graduated our first Grand Challenges Scholar, Haiden Smith. That program allows students to give their degree a global focus on one of 14 urgent challenges facing the world as identified by the National Academy of Engineering.

All are examples of combining classroom instruction with practical application in real-world experiences. We know the value of these experiences in helping our students become better scientists, engineers,

Recognizing their importance, more of our students are seeking out these experiences as they look for opportunities to make a difference in the world. Our Rose-Hulman chapter of Engineers Without Borders is just one example of a group of students trying to make an impact. The club has worked on quality-of-life projects in Ghana and Ecuador and is the process of exploring its next mission.

While our progress as an institution to grow our presence globally has been measurable, there is still much for us to achieve. We welcome your help in continuing to spread the word about Rose-Hulman, wherever you may be reading this issue.

Wishing you a safe holiday season and a Happy New Year.

As we continue to identify ways to strengthen our presence globally, we also remain steadfast in our commitment to provide our students with the skills they need to thrive in our rapidly changing world by creating opportunities on campus.

To that end, plans are taking shape for the development of an entrepreneurial ecosystem we are calling “Innovation Grove.”

The space will be located on the Hulman Farm property adjacent to the main campus. With funding coming from private and anticipated federal support in tandem with a $1.5 million grant from the Regional Economic Acceleration and Development Initiative (READI), this project could be a defining moment for Rose’s distinctive environment of engineering expertise and offer an enterprise unlike that of any other college or university.

Plans include relocating Rose-Hulman Ventures—which is currently located approximately six miles from campus— as the anchor facility of the site. The greater vision for Innovation Grove is to leverage faculty expertise, student capacity, and the more than two decades of industrial innovation experience Ventures provides to grow opportunities for students and fuel economic growth in the region. Innovation Grove will provide more opportunities for alumni to engage as well, including the integration of space for our entrepreneurial Sawmill Society network.

Our vision is that Innovation Grove will be a thriving, selfsustaining entrepreneurial center that houses advanced labs and testing facilities, a greatly expanded client base, and most importantly, more internships and opportunities for Rose-Hulman students.