On Tuesday, May 19, HanaHaus hosted its second installment of the SAP Virtual Speaker Series featuring Co-Directors Humera Fasihuddin and Leticia Britos Cavagnaro of the University Innovation Fellows (UIF) Program at Stanford University’s d.school for an engaging panel discussion to share strategies that can help drive innovation across an organization.

By Glenn Rabena

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Humera and Leticia hold degrees of different dynamics, an MBA in Mathematics and PhD in Biology, respectively. Somehow, their career path transitioned and led them to a profession in Education. They begin the talk about their most important learning they had transitioning into these completely different fields.

 

Humera entered the industry during a recession and had no idea how to put the math degree to work; similar to how today’s students are finding themselves without opportunity. She expressed how the educational system can do so much better for students to their entry into the workforce. She emphasized that preparation begins during their college days and shouldn’t be relied on the company to get them ready.

Leticia added that growing up in Columbia and moving to the U.S. 16 years ago, she values and embraces her role as an outsider. She pointed out that people feel that they need to accumulate a lot of experience and expertise in each discipline before we can contribute anything worthwhile. However, Leticia noted that it is wasting something that is invaluable – which is one’s fresh perspective. The ability to ask questions that experts would not have asked themselves will help drive cross-pollination and bring new methods of working within your organization. 

Humera and Leticia explained that the UIF Program helps enable student system thinkers to partner with their institutional leaders to imagine new possibilities at school. Students can use their entrepreneurial mindset, creativity, and innovation to imagine more effective means to expose other students to this kind of framework while they’re at school. Everyone is born with creativity and schools have not found good ways to empower students with the right tools and environments to unlock their creative potential. Leticia emphasized that there is no cookie cutter recipe that is going to work for everyone, and you must put the work in finding what works for you.

The discussion led to topics that hit home for many tech organizations: diversity and inclusion. The students that UIF attract are those who are motivated about the education of their peers. They touched on how they diversify the UIF program with a similar approach as the MacArthur Genius Award, in which you don’t know the identity of the panel and the certain attributes they’re looking for in others. With this type of nomination approach, you won’t get the usual suspects. You will acquire people that are more diverse. In an industry setting, Humera says “that finding these individuals, setting the bar, and being there for them, you’re creating the conditions that allow for a diverse population to be successful.”

 

Here are some tips Leticia and Humera would give to themselves if they were in college:

Leticia – Don’t let your major/discipline define yourself. You are much more than that. You are you quirks, your passions, your side projects, the people you spend your time with. You have to value and nurture them because any and all of those are going to open doors that your diploma cannot.

 

Humera – Life’s not linear. You imagine a path from your degree to some future or aspirational goal for your career. But the way you get there is not always going to be a straight line. You’re going to take some turns and you’re going to learn some things about yourself, about the environment you want to be in, and the kind of impact you want to have in the world. Remain open and allow yourself to take the twists and turns that you’re blessed to have in life.

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Want to experience the event for yourself? Watch the full video here! 

Stay tuned for our next SAP Virtual Speaker Series.