Priorities:Northwestern University Student Priorities

Overview:

With the recent opening of the Garage and the increase in visibility and amount of resources for entrepreneurship on campus, now is the ideal time to optimize the entrepreneurial ecosystem for the future and make the improvements necessary to make it the best it can be.

Part I: Breaking Down Silos and Improving Student Access to Resources 

The Northwestern Entrepreneurship Ecosystem already has a plethora of resources for students interested in entrepreneurship, innovation, design, and related fields. However, these resources are siloed by schools and departments making it difficult for students to find them and take advantage. The following initiatives are designed to improve student access to resources on campus.

Key Milestones:

• Creation of an Entrepreneurship Task Force to examine ways of knowledge sharing and collaborating across silos - November, 2015
• Re-maping and development of new graphics that more clearly highlight the resources avaliable - December, 2015
• Recommendations on cross-silo knowledge sharing and potential collaboration between different organizations - March, 2016

Part II: The Garage as a Hub for Entrepreneurship & Innovation

·      The Garage’s opening marks a major milestone in the development of the Northwestern Entrepreneurial Ecosystem and has the potential to serve as a catalyst for entrepreneurship and innovation on campus. It is critical that it’s role be clearly defined in a way consistent with the ecosystem’s needs. While this may seem like common sense, it is critical that the Garage serve as a hub in the sense that it connects the varying efforts on campus and allows for intersections between ideas and backgrounds, rather than pushing a uniform entrepreneurial vision.

Key Milestones:

• Creation of a strategic plan for the development of a diverse community - November, 2015
• Development of better legal resources for resident teams - November, 2015
• Targeted outreach centered on attracting entrepreneurs from non-tradtional backgrounds - January, 2015
• Development of venture funding sources for resident teams - January, 2015
• Development of a scholarship fund to help those who cannot afford to take part in entrepreneurship at the expense of a part time job - March, 2016
• Development of an indepth entrepreneurship-focused alumni database - April, 2016

Part III: Expansion of the Northwestern Entrepreneurship Community

With the recent development of and focus on entrepreneurial resources particularly for those who are building startups in software, green tech, or medical devices, it is now time to shift the focus towards the earlier stages of the funnel in order to attract a larger audience, especially given that a majority of Northwestern students have the mentality necessary for an interest in entrepreneurship and innovation.

Key Milestones:

• Change in the marketing language used to advertise entrepreneurship-related events to be more appealing to all - November, 2016
• Use of new marketing channels aimed at different audiences to advertise entrepreneurship-related events - December, 2015
• Creation of more extracurricular opportunities designed to teach design thinking and an entrepreneurial mindset - February, 2016
• Creation of classes that are not centered on startups, but rather focus on entrepreneurhsip in other contexts - April, 2016

Part IV: Making Entrepreneurship and Student Life More Compatible       

While entrepreneurship requires large amounts of dedication, time, and effort and should not be easy, there are steps that can be taken to make it easier to be pursued without jeopardizing one’s academic career and promoting a healthy less stressful lifestyle.   

Key Milestones:

• Offering of more independent study opportunities for students pursuing entrepreneurship - January, 2016
• Initial formal recommendation to the faculty of the School of Education and Social Policy on the importance of an innovation and design reguirement - January, 2016
• Implentation of an innovation and design requirement into the Learning Sciences and Learning and Organizational Change Curriculums - December, 2016

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Northwestern University

Garret Goehring