Preliminary conversations began in Fall of 2020 with potential partners in public and private sectors. A comprehensive and formalized Center of Innovation & Entrepreneurship has the potential to further capitalize on our commitment to both high-impact practices and engagement with and service to local and regional organizations. Ideally designed as an interdisciplinary laboratory for student and faculty collaborations across campus, this Center will serve as a space for both entrepreneurial competitions for students across disciplines to help bring ideas to the market. It will also be a collaborative space with the Center for Economic Education that leads the annual Minority Youth in Business Program (MYBP) in which the high school participants engage in a business plan competition as part of the summer curriculum. The synergies with the MYBP could be significant both in terms of opportunities to further build that program, but also to involve our GC entrepreneurs and mentors with participating underrepresented high school students. Lastly, the Center will be a space for organizations to engage our students and faculty experts on emergent technologies and critical policy issues. For instance, an emphasis on ESG (environmental, social, and corporate governance) and the intersection of technology on matters related to ethics, access, disparity, and equity could be a central focus. The Center will provide support for researching, reporting, and advising on these topics including triple bottom line reporting. The center could also oversee students as they co-manage an ESG investment portfolio.
Action Steps
1: Craft the Center Proposal
1: Craft the Center proposal to include structural design, outline programmatic goals, business plan, and website/promotional content
Completed June 2022
- Champions:
Dr. Nicholas Creel (Champion); Dean - Goals/Target Dates:
Proposal submission June 30, 2022 - Resources Needed:
$7,500 (initial investment to include stipend and benchmarking)
2: Recruit & Maintain an Active Leadership Board
2: Recruit and maintain an active Leadership Board to advise on pertinent matters and to secure external resources to grow and sustain the center
The first board meeting will be held in April 2024
- Champions:
Director; Advancement; Dean - Goals/Target Dates:
Spring 2024 - Establish the Leadership Board - Key Performance Indicators:
Number of board members; their composition and giving rate - Resource Needs:
$1,000 annually to support the board
3: Secure Initial Space to House the Center
3: Secure initial space to house the center; explore additional physical space for potential expansion to meet programming and stakeholder needs
Potential space has been identified
- Champions:
Director; Dean - Goals/Target Dates:
Spring 2022 - finalize space acquisition
Fall 2022-Spring 2024 - assess needs and determine options if further physical space is needed - Key Performance Indicators:
Space Utilization
Number of clients served, along with the number of projects initiated and completed
Student, faculty, and citizen participation rate in activities housed in space
4: Develop Community-Based Learning Projects
4: Develop and foster Community-based Engaged Learning projects and client consultancies for students to serve local and regional organizations
Working on projects
- Champions:
Faculty; Director; GIVE Center; Dean - Goals/Target Dates:
Fall 2022 - establish client list and begin projects
AY23-26 - complete an average of 5 projects per year involving 20 students per year - Key Performance Indicators:
Completing business plan for The Market Basket
Received a $100,000 grant from the Partnership for Inclusive Innovation and are conducting a “Solar Education Academy” - Resources Needed:
$500 (advertising)
$3,500 (graduate assistant)
5: Facilitate Entrepreneurship Programming
5: Facilitate various entrepreneurship programming including, but not limited to: Campus-wide competition, participation in Enactus competition, participation in a scaling competition
First competition held in Spring 23
- Champions:
Faculty; Entrepreneurship Club; Director; Dean - Goals/Target Dates:
Starting Spring 2023, facilitate one competition per year
Organize a group of students to attend Enactus in AY23-24
AY22-23 explore the potential participation in global scaling competitions or other related state-wide or national scaling or entrepreneurship competitions - Key Performance Indicators:
Held 2nd Venture Capital Challenge in March 2024; Undergraduate students Trey McCallum, Grant Jones, Joe Dubsky, and Grayson Stoudenmire are on a team mentored by Nicholas Creel that came in first place in the Americas regional round of the University of New Mexico Anderson School of Management’s Global Scaling Competition in spring 2024. This “Gold Medal” award comes with a $1,500 cash prize and an invitation to the competition’s finals round, taking place in late April 2024; An undergraduate team will compete in the NASBITE International Student Case Competition in Las Vegas in April 2024. - Resources Needed:
$4,000 (advertising, awards)
$4,000 (registration, travel)
6: Entrepreneurship Minor
6: work with faculty to explore the potential for an entrepreneurship minor
New department chair arrives July 2024; Minor is expected to come to faculty for approval in Fall 2024
- Champions:
Director; Faculty - Goals/Target Dates:
AY22-23 - preliminary conversations with faculty
AY23-24 - proposed minor
AY24-25 - minor goes live, if approved - Key Performance Indicators:
First-year and sophomore retention
Student success measures such as graduation rates/times to graduation
Enrollment - Resources Needed:
$6,000 - $100,000 for a faculty position and/or part-time faculty support