The R.G. LeTourneau Innovation Fellows Program is a four-year pathway for future-focused, faith-informed innovators.

Local Church Engagement

As part of LeTourneau University’s commitment to holistic formation, the Innovation Fellows Program encourages students to engage consistently with a local Christian congregation throughout their participation in the program. Local church involvement provides spiritual formation, discipleship, mentorship, and a broader community beyond campus.

Program Distinctiveness

The R.G. LeTourneau Innovation Fellows Program awards scholarships based on future potential, integrates innovation with faith and service, includes formational international experiences, and emphasizes growth over outcomes. It is not an honors college, entrepreneurship minor, or study abroad track; it is a purpose-built formation pathway for students called to build, lead, and serve in a complex world.

Foundational Principles

Future Potential Over Past Performance: Fellows are selected for what they can become and build, not solely for grades or test scores.

Innovation as Stewardship: Innovation is framed as service, responsibility, and ethical action, not disruption for its own sake.

Formation, Not Just Skill Acquisition: The program prioritizes who students are becoming alongside what they are learning.

Learning Through Real Contexts: Fellows learn innovation through domestic and global communities, real constraints, and active partners.

Progressive Challenge and Responsibility: Each year builds intentionally on the last, increasing complexity, leadership, and contribution.

RG LeTourneau Innovation Fellows Program Scholarship

Innovation Fellows receive an additional $1,000 per year scholarship, in addition to their existing financial aid and scholarship package. This award recognizes students’ commitment to innovation, leadership, and service throughout the program.

The scholarship reinforces the program’s philosophy by rewarding future potential without purely focusing on past performance.

Year One: Explore, Belong, and Be Formed

Focus: Identity, curiosity, community, and orientation Students are introduced to the program community and foundational innovation practices.

Innovation Fellows are expected to:

• Connect with a local church.
• Attend one lunch seminar per semester.
• Attend the annual “Entrepreneurship Summit” through the Center for Free Enterprise & Entrepreneurial Leadership.
• Meet regularly with an “innovation mentor.” Fellows can choose their own mentor or request a mentor. All mentors must be approved by R.G. Research & Development, Inc.
• Raise or save the necessary funds for the May Global Service-Learning trip (optional, after freshman year).

Student Posture: Observer and learner.

Year Two: Build, Serve, and Apply

Focus: Skill development, consistency, and participation Students engage in for-credit innovation coursework and collaborative projects while establishing consistent participation in a local church.

• Register for the one-credit “innovation course” each semester.
• Regularly attend a local church.
• Attend one lunch seminar per semester.
• Attend the annual “Entrepreneurship Summit” through the Center for Free Enterprise & Entrepreneurial Leadership.
• Meet regularly with an “innovation mentor.” Fellows can choose their own mentor or request a mentor. All mentors must be approved by R.G. Research & Development, Inc.
• Raise or save the necessary funds for the May Global Service-Learning trip (optional, after sophomore year).

Student Posture: Analyst and systems thinker

Year Three: Lead, Integrate, and Discern

Focus: Leadership, ethics, and integration Students assume greater leadership roles and integrate faith with innovation practice.

• Register for the one-credit “innovation course” each semester.
• Volunteer in a local church.
• Attend one lunch seminar per semester.
• Attend the annual “Entrepreneurship Summit” through the Center for Free Enterprise & Entrepreneurial Leadership.
• Meet regularly with an “innovation mentor.” Fellows can choose their own mentor or request a mentor. All mentors must be approved by R.G. Research & Development, Inc.
• Raise or save the necessary funds for the May Global Service-Learning trip (optional, after junior year).

Student Posture: Contributor and co-laborer

Year Four: Scale, Mentor, and Distinguish

Focus: Vocation, legacy, and transition beyond LeTourneau Students pursue advanced innovation opportunities, mentor younger Fellows, and articulate vocational direction.

• Mentor the new Freshman in the new Innovation Fellows cohort.
• Register for the one-credit “innovation course” each semester.
• Volunteer in a local church.
• Attend one lunch seminar per semester.
• Attend the annual “Entrepreneurship Summit” through the Center for Free Enterprise & Entrepreneurial Leadership.
• Meet regularly with an “innovation mentor.” Fellows can choose their own mentor or request a mentor.

Student Posture: Mentor and emerging professional

Within the Innovation Fellows pathway, Global Service-Learning projects function as applied innovation laboratories, allowing students to progress from observation to analysis to contribution while integrating faith, learning, and service in complex global contexts.

Global Service Learning in the Innovation Fellows Program connects classroom learning with real-world innovation through faculty-led, faith-informed projects that serve global communities with sustainability and purpose.

Drawing on LeTourneau University’s historic culture of ingenuity in Christian service, Global Service Learning integrates faculty expertise, high-ability students, and long-term partnerships to prepare the next generation of faithful innovators and global servant-leaders.

Guiding Commitments

All Global Service-Learning experiences within the Innovation Fellows Program are shaped by the following commitments:

• Honor Christ through discipline-specific excellence and service to others
• Develop sustainable solutions that alleviate human suffering and promote human flourishing
• Pursue multidisciplinary collaboration with long-term, gospel-centered partners
• Prepare students for global leadership rooted in humility, responsibility, and service
• Steward resources and ingenuity for the benefit of communities and the broader world

Defining Characteristics of a Global Service-Learning Project

To be recognized as a Global Service-Learning project, each project must meet the following criteria:

• Faculty–Student Collaboration: Projects engage faculty and students as a unified team working alongside long-term strategic partners.
• Real and Ongoing Global Need: Projects address a global challenge with sustained relevance, practical application, and long-term viability.
• Discipline-Based Innovation: Projects build upon existing academic disciplines within the university and advance applied learning.
• Mutual Educational and Professional Value: Projects provide meaningful learning outcomes for students and professional or scholarly benefit for faculty.
• Fiscal and Operational Sustainability: Projects are financially responsible and sustainable for both the university and the host context.