Changes

= Overview<br/> =

The Wake Forest University Innovation, Creativity, and Entrepreneurship program exhibits many characteristics of programs at much larger universities. The resources available, programs conducted, classes offered, faculty advisers, and overall desire to change the Wake Forest campus provides students exciting opportunities. One aspect that I believe differentiates Wake’s program is the multitude of classes offered by the Innovation, Creativity, and Entrepreneurship (ICE) Program. Entrepreneurship classes range everywhere from empowering high performance teams to equipping entrepreneurial scientist with the necessary skills to start a venture. Students start by taking three core courses to teach them basics of innovation, entrepreneurship, and managing a start-up. The wide variety of courses offered captures student interests from across many disciplines. This is purely evident by the number of Entrepreneurship and Social Enterprise minors on campus. The ICE program’s positioning within the university is also an explanation for its ubiquitous nature on the Wake Forest campus. The program is not considered a department, nor is it buried in our undergraduate business school. In fact, it is centrally located on campus with beautiful glass room offices providing a “googlesque” environment.

In a different way, the innovation and entrepreneurship is bolstered on campus through the Seed Grant Proposal projects. Each semester, the ICE program provides students with a four day short series on writing grant proposals. This workshop offers business and non-business students advice on how to successfully write top-notch grant proposals. These students are then able to complete a business plan and submit their ideas to a committee within the ICE program. Students are invited to give 15 minute presentations and can be awarded up to $10,000 for their start-up. This process not only teaches students important entrepreneurial skills such as grant writing, business plan creation, and pitching but also provides them money to move their passion into an action. These points are just a few of the positive aspects I see with Wake Forest University’s Innovation, Creativity, and Entrepreneurship Program. At the same time, I have identified two sections of WFU’s I&E landscape that need improvement in order to foster higher levels of entrepreneurship on campus.

Following are an array of strategies that will fully address Gap #1 over a 2-3 year period:

*''Description:'' I believe that this strategy can hit on a number of key points to develop the innovation and entrepreneurship on campus. The immediate problem The Student Venture Capital Fund will solve is the lack of entrepreneurial extracurricular clubs. This will provide students with a way to get involved in the I&E ecosystem on campus while learning and having fun. On campus, there is a similar organization called The Student Fund. My idea was to model this club in a similar mindset. The interesting part about this idea is that it can be twisted and reorganized so that it fits the needs and resources of the campus. The way I see this tactic running would be to gather a group of 20 to 50 students. Each month the group would meet and give presentations about startup companies they have researched and learned about. They would put together all aspects of their business plan and then pitch it to the larger group. We would have a theoretical dollar amount in the fund to give to each company. The students acting as the <span data-scayt_word="vcs" data-scaytid="40">VCs</span> could discuss pro vs cons and whether they would invest in this company. Student groups could be broken down into sector/industry groups so everyone could learn about different industries as well. On the other hand, instead of conducting the Venture Capital Fund in a theoretical sense we could attempt to raise money through the ICE program or other university resources. This way we could actually invest money into student entrepreneurs and gain a more hands on approach. This could also open doors to invite local venture capitalists to speak, sit in on the meetings, or give advise. I think a club like this could also teach non-business students the "frightening" financial process behind funding ventures.

== Tactic #2: Business Plan Competition (Demon Deacon Pitch Plan Competition) ==

*''Milestones:''&nbsp;Assess idea and make improvements Dec 2013, design possible weekend program Jan 2014, test possible event March 2013, reevaluate the event April/May 2014, hold competition fall of 2014.

= Strategy #2: Applied<br/> =

*''Milestones:'' Develop short and long term plan for improvement along with methods "How to" May 2014, Continue with plans/contact ICE leaders/University leadership Fall 2014, refine plans and reevaluate Jan 2015&nbsp;

<span style="font-size: 12px;">Currently the best political science students at Wake Forest are encouraged to complete a semester or a summer at the Washington Center. This is aptly named as "Wake in Washington". While in Washington D.C., students are exposed to the best experiential learning opportunities that a Political Science student could desire, in addition to taking a couple of classes.&nbsp;</span>

I propose that a house be rented in Silicon Valley, where students could take two classes from a Wake Forest professor, and also intern at a local startup or established company in Silicon Valley. Outreach to companies would likely start where Wake alumni currently work, such as CrowdTilt, DIY.org, Google, and various others.

[[Michael Tantum]]