Kern Family Foundation Grants Tuition Scholarships to Support Drexel’s ELATES Faculty Leadership Development Program
The Kern Family Foundation has partnered with the Drexel University to generously support five tuition scholarships with a $67,500 grant for Drexel’s Executive Leadership in Academic Technology, Engineering and Science (ELATES) program, a yearlong, national leadership program for senior faculty. The scholarships will be awarded to ELATES Fellows in the Class of 2025-2026 from institutions associated with the Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network (KEEN) — a partnership of more than 60 colleges and universities across the United States. These five scholarships and continued partnership with KEEN, strengthens Drexel’s ability to move forward with its shared mission to empower women in engineering and to promote the entrepreneurial mindset in engineering education.
“It’s exciting to think about a future where all academic leaders leverage an entrepreneurial mindset – seeing opportunities, making an impact, and creating broad and lasting value. ELATES is working to make that a reality,” said Michael Johnson, Digital Media Director at the Kern Family Foundation. “So many leaders in KEEN have already participated in and benefited from this remarkable leadership development program. We are pleased to partner with ELATES once again so more leaders have access to this experience and make lasting change because of it.”
ELATES at Drexel is a part-time leadership development program designed to promote senior women faculty, and faculty allies of all genders, in STEM fields into effective institutional leadership roles. ELATES will advance the mission of KEEN institutions, including Drexel University, to equip undergraduate engineering students with an entrepreneurial mindset by investing in STEM faculty development.
Selected Fellows who become admitted into the ELATES program will conduct institutional action projects aligned with KEEN’s mission to graduate engineers with an entrepreneurial mindset so they can create personal, economic, and societal value through a lifetime of meaningful work. The ELATES Class of 2025-2026 will join an ELATES alumni network of more than 200 faculty leaders from dozens of institutions across the country.
For scholarship consideration, candidates should submit their ELATES applications by the Early Bird deadline, December 15, 2024, and highlight in their materials how they intend to integrate the KEEN mission into their activities. Eligible institutions can be found at engineeringunleashed.com/partners.
Visit drexel.edu/elates for information session dates, happening October through December, and to apply. The regular application deadline is February 1, 2025.
About ELATES
ELATES at Drexel is a one-year, part-time leadership development program that aims to create a network of exceptional faculty who bring broad organizational perspectives and deep personal capacity to the institutions and society they serve. Facilitated by leaders in the fields of STEM research and leadership development, the ELATES curriculum is focused on increasing Fellows’ personal and professional leadership effectiveness, including the ability to lead and manage change initiatives within institutions and the use of strategic finance and resource management to enhance organizational missions. Pairing online instruction and discussion with intensive in-person seminar sessions, the program encourages Fellows to apply what they’ve learned at their home institutions.