Oct 22, 2019
Jodi Enos-Berlage
Luther College Rochester Hub Initiative and the Mayo Clinic Design Thinking Workshop

DRC Sponsor: Mike Huinker

Dr. Jodi Enos-Berlage serves as Professor and Internship Coordinator in the Biology Department at Luther College. She has recently assumed an additional leadership position in the Luther College Career Center. Over the past two years Dr. Enos-Berlage has co-led the development of Luther College's Rochester Hub Initiative, which is slated to launch in the Spring of 2020. This initiative will involve Luther College securing housing, providing coursework, and most importantly, developing immersion internships (on site 20+ hrs/week) for a regular semester rotation of students at Rochester-based companies, businesses, the Mayo Clinic, non-profit organizations, and other appropriate internship targets. Dr. Enos-Berlage will provide our club with unique insights into the Rochester Hub Initiative and will recap the results of the Mayo Clinic Design Thinking Workshop hosted on the Luther College campus on October 3rd.

As part of Luther's Rochester Hub Initiative, Dr. Enos-Berlage and co-leader Robert Christman, Professor of History, have been directly engaged with key leaders in the Destination Medical Center (DMC), a major public/private economic development initiative ($5.6 billion invested and 30,000 new jobs in the next 20 years) to establish Rochester as a global destination for health, wellness, bioscience and technology innovation. Luther College was one of five schools selected and invited to participate in a DMC-sponsored Design Thinking Workshop. The content of this workshop was developed by Mayo Clinic design experts and consists of a fast-paced, 90-minute, hands-on session intended to teach participants the process and mindset needed for creative problem-solving using a human-centered approach. The workshop's organizers also seek to stimulate interest in the formation of collaborative teams to participate in the spring DMC Assistive Technology Challenge, a pitch competition to facilitate greater independence for individuals with disabilities and the daily challenges they face.

More information on the DMC initiative may be found using the following link: Destination Medical Center