Bachelor of Innovation™
The Bachelor of Innovation (BI) Degree at the University Colorado Colorado Springs (UCCS) is the only one of its kind in the United States. The BI is an interdisciplinary family of degree majors that all have one thing in common, which is the eight Innovation Core classes. These classes consist of innovation, entrepreneurship, business law, technical writing, innovation teams, and an entrepreneurship capstone. The difference from the BI and a Bachelor of Science (BS) or a Bachelor of Arts (BA) is all electives are Innovation focused. The BI also allows students to choose a cross-discipline to go along with their major and an area of emphasis.
My degree is a Bachelor of Innovation™ in Business with an emphasis in Management and a cross-discipline in Creative Communication.
An instrumental part of the BI is Innovation Teams, which allow students the opportunity to work out “on the court” with clients of all types, on the “transformation of ideas into impact”. This class is taken three times throughout students’ studies at UCCS. The first time the student is a rookie and brings all types of excitement, skills, and ideas to the table. The second time through the class we are considered a midlevel consultant with a stronger foundational knowledge of the process of innovation and consulting. The third and final time we take the class we get to lead and practice leadership.
One of the coolest things about Innovation Teams is the community of clients we get to work with. For me personally, I have had the experience of working with the City of Colorado Springs on two projects, and Relevel, LLC, who works with the Pikes Peak Retail & Hospitality Sector Partnership.
Clients from all over the world and locally apply for BI Teams and are hand-picked by the leadership team of the Bachelor of Innovation™. The leadership team is comprised of the creator of the BI, and experienced professionals in the world of entrepreneurship, innovation, academia, writing, business law, and patents. These are our professors who teach us a wealth of knowledge to further our success as innovators.
Another exciting thing about the BI degree is we all learn how to invent and start a company. We are taught the process of idea generation, protecting ideas through a patent application, finding funding, and everything else to build a business from the ground up.
All in all, I sure am glad I pursued my Bachelor of Innovation™ degree at UCCS. I always wanted to have a degree; that’s something you cannot take from me. I can now speak the language of other businesspeople and innovators. My degree title alone is what businesses are looking for in today’s world, and I want to be the person that brings it to the table.