School:Susquehanna University

Overview

Susquehanna University is a private liberal arts institution. It was founded in 1858 in the small town of Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania. The university is dedicated to helping students become productive, creative leaders in a diverse world though academics, service, and personal values which is shown through the university motto of “achieve, lead, serve,” as well as the school’s teaching and community environment. Susquehanna is centrally located within a 3 hour drive of 4 major cities - Philadelphia, New York City, Baltimore, and Washington, DC, and is 4 hours from Pittsburgh and just 1.5 hours from the scenic Pocono Mountains.

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Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Susquehanna University has entrepreneurship and innovation opportunities for students and experienced and helpful professors. Students are able to learn from professors through their class lessons and succeed outside the classroom with their own ventures and research. The Sigmund Weis School of business has an entrepreneurship and innovation minor. Additionally, Susquehanna has recently started a partnership with Columbia University for a combined degree program in liberal arts and Science education and Engineering. Interested students will be able to obtain two bachelors degrees in just five years.

Student

Spring 2015: Susquehanna is growing in opportunities for students to engage in entrepreneurship and innovation. The university has recently established an Entrepreneurship & Innovation minor to replace the business administration entrepreneurship emphasis. Students hoping to create their own organizations or campus publications will quickly learn about the faculty and staff’s willingness to give advice and guidance to help turn their ideas into realities. Last year, the university ran a Pitch Contest and saw students from various backgrounds and departments bring forth ideas for innovation and creativity. According to a student who is currently a Business Entrepreneurship major, “the business department gives us the tools that are needed to become successful and creative entrepreneurs.”  

Pitch Contest: The Pitch Contest was organized to “help students gain experience in developing and presenting ideas for innovation.”  Alumni served as the judges of the event and were able to share their own experiences while building connections between current students and alumni for a greater network. The event helped to inspire ideas as well as showing students how to improve their ideas for the future. Two minutes to describe your idea and convince the judges of its merit made the Pitch Contest very interesting and intense. Elevator pitches do not have fancy presentations with powerpoints and posters; they have simplicity, the product and the presenter. Students learned an important aspect of the business world through these quick pitches as they learned to sell their product and learn from the judges comments as well as their fellow classmates.

Fall 2016: Regarding the Entrepreneurship & Innovation minor, we would like to add that faculty currently teaching entrepreneurship classes are striving to enroll students from all different disciplines. The Pitch Contest has not been held since the aforementioned one, in the spring of 2014, but we are hoping to work with the business school, alumni relations and the career development center to reinstate the Pitch Contest by spring of 2018.

Faculty

Susquehanna University faculty introduce a plethora of opportunity for the students to engage both on campus and the local/regional setting. Faculty at Susquehanna University have recently engaged in innovation and entrepreneurial opportunities with many companies and organizations such as the Keystone Innovation Zone and the American Physiological Society. These opportunities open the gateway for faculty members to provide funding and the opportunity for students interested in order to build their confidence and encourage their innovation and entrepreneurial skill set.

Recently, Keystone Innovation Zone provided funding to a professor in the Sigmund Weis Business School to assist in developing a website for the local Selinsgrove company, Fresh Roasted Coffee. The funding provided allowed the faculty member to involve two Susquehanna University students for this great opportunity. Keystone Innovation Zone has also provided faculty and students the privilegeof assisting another local company develop a device to scale trees in order to assist the hunters in the area. Currently, faculty in the Biology department at Susquehanna University are working to gain funding from the American Physiological Society and the National Science Foundation to conduct innovative research. The funding is said to not only assist the faculty member in their research but to encourage the opportunity for students to take part in the research as well.

Innovation Allies:

Dr. Samya Bano Zain, Associate Professor of Physics, Physics Department Chair

Dr. Scott Manning, Dean of Global Programs

Dr. Emma Fleck, Associate Professor of Management (Entrepreneurship)

Dr. Betsy Verhoeven, Associate Professor of English, Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning

Robert Sieczkiewicz, Assistant Professor, Research Librarian: Instruction and Digital Scholarship

Dr. Amir Bahman Radnejad, Assistant Professor of Management (Entrepreneurship)

Staff

Alumni Relations and Development - Becky Dietrick, Ron Cohen → Have connected to Alumni on Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Breakthrough excellent resources of talent, funding,

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Technology Transfer Function

The science department at Susquehanna keeps students highly involved in the forefront of the research process from the beginning of their undergraduate studies. Students are regularly invited to partner with faculty for the summer to conduct research in the various areas of the professors’ areas of expertise.

University Industry Collaboration

Susquehanna University is centrally located in a small, but bustling economic center within central Pennsylvania. Academically, the Sigmund Weis School of Business leads the campus in industry collaboration. A variety of business classes push their students beyond the classroom to collaborate with local small businesses and entrepreneurs. Extracurricular organizations such as Enactus and, in the past, the Entrepreneurship Club have also acted as bridges connecting SU students with industries both local and abroad. Geisinger Hospital is also an industry collaborator. Students have the opportunity to complete internships with Geisinger and the campus also hosts a Geisinger Health Center.

This factor coupled with the college’s strong alumni network present students with opportunities to interact and work with professionals regularly throughout their academic career. Formal events, such as “Breakthrough: To Life After Graduation” allow students to discuss topic such as entrepreneurship and research with experienced professional alumni. Moreover, the Career Development Center, Alumni Office, and individual departments actively try to build informal networks between students and alumni for mentoring, internship, and employment opportunities.

Collaborators:

• Agricultural Region
• Weis Markets
• Hershey Medical
• Harley Davidson Headquarters
• Empire Kosher

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Regional and Local Economic Development

SEDA-Council of Governments is a regional public organization that serves 11 counties in Central Pennsylvania. The organization is overseen by a Board which consists of elected officials and local people. There is focus in transportation, international sales, information technology and financial packaging. This organization works on marketing local products for international export.

Pennsylvania Small Business Development Centers (SBDC) leads a major effort to aid in the development of small businesses. They offer information and resources to start businesses and help with growth, continuity and survival once the business has been started. SBDC has many branches including one at nearby Bucknell University. SBDC offers a variety of services aimed to topics such as Government Marketing, International Business, Technology assistance and Environmental Management.

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Spring 2015

Fall 2016

Related links

Introduction Video:

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Student Priorities

Students:

Alexis Gargin  (2015)

Ethan Estwood  (2015)

Pierce Logan Perkins  (2015)

Tiffany Richards  (2015)