Four students representing the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University recently concluded their work in the Innovation Scholars Program. They presented their assessment of the research and recommendations to Mayo Clinic licensing managers and innovators on Feb. 28 in Rochester, Minnesota.
CSB junior biochemistry and accounting double major Olivia LaTour (Maple Lake, Minnesota), SJU junior business finance major Owen Montreuil (Jordan, Minnesota), CSB senior biology major Kennae Mortimer (Nassau, The Bahamas) and CSB senior biochemistry major Lauren Voll (Byron, Minnesota) represented the team.
Working at the intersection of science, healthcare and entrepreneurship, the multidisciplinary team of four CSB and SJU students spent four months tackling a challenging biomedical tech transfer project focused on three novel technologies for use in the special surgical setting of heart valve repair.
The team was led by Augsburg University MBA student Hayden Halbach. They completed extensive research, developed recommendations, prepared their final report and polished their final presentation for Mayo Clinic Ventures inventors and leaders.
Innovation Scholars is a nationally recognized experiential learning program that engages teams of liberal arts students in the complex processes of translational medicine, taking an idea “from the bench to the bedside.”
Project partners include Mayo Clinic, early-stage companies affiliated with Medical Alley and NASA.
Support and praise from advisors
CSB and SJU faculty members Clark Cotton, associate professor of biology; Lauri Miller, visiting assistant professor of accounting and finance; and Jennifer Schaefer, professor of biology and department chair, served as project mentors. Trisa Schaeffer, senior associate director in the Office of Undergraduate Research and Scholars at CSB and SJU, provided administrative support.
“The Innovation Scholars program is one of my favorite opportunities for students and one of my favorite involvements,” Schaefer said. “Student teams must work closely together on a real-life problem, wrestle with all the ambiguity that entails and make a recommendation to the Mayo Clinic. It’s a very intimidating task!
“This team did a great job of evaluating evidence, constructing a clear rationale for their recommendation and delivering a professional and informative presentation,” she added.
Student reflections on Innovation Scholars Program
Olivia LaTour: “This program has influenced my academic and career goals by opening up the possibility to have a multidisciplinary career in the future. It allowed me to see the possibilities of careers that combine business and science. I have learned a lot from working on this project, but the most important thing I learned is to navigate the challenges of conducting research and creating a presentation without any initial guidance. Despite having no prior instructions, we collaboratively developed a successful presentation and came to a thoughtful conclusion.”
Owen Montreuil: “Through working with the Innovation Scholars Program, it has opened my eyes to many new career opportunities in licensing and product development, while providing hands-on experience in strategic decision making, which will be valuable to me in my future career in the financial industry. This project has taught me many things, but the most important lesson I learned is to embrace ambiguity and navigate uncertainty with confidence. By working through complex challenges faced in this project, I’ve gained a deeper understanding of approaching innovative solutions in the business world.”
Kennae Mortimer: “As I’m interested in becoming a dermatologist and opening a private practice, this program allowed me to see the firsthand intersection of when biology/sciences and business overlaps. It gave me a lot of insight into procedures I may have to go about in the future and this experience was definitely one of a kind in that sense. I’ve learned a lot about teamwork, time management, organization and being proactive.
“This project was very team oriented, so it involved lots of weekly meetings, constructive criticism from each other as well as the reward of having other people by your side through the good and rough parts of the project. It is a rather time-consuming project, but the knowledge that you gain is priceless and worth it overall. We obtained and worked through a lot of information so keeping track of where you collected information from and giving credit to all sources was of high importance. There are also some individually independent parts of this project that will require you to be proactive, for example, if you see a gap in information that you believe should be included you could go out on a limb, research it and then bring the suggestion back to the larger group.”
Lauren Voll: “Without innovation, the medical field would not include the highly specific, accurate and technical patient centered technologies that it offers today. The Innovation Scholars Program allowed each member of the interdisciplinary team to use their strengths while learning from each other. This program taught me how medical inventions enter the market, which is an avenue of research that I could now see myself working in. Taking knowledge outside of the classroom, and working with a large group such as Mayo Clinic Ventures, will be a defining moment of my undergraduate career.”
