Priorities:Virginia State University Student Priorities

Overview

The Association of Public and Land-grant Universities Office for Access and Success (OAS) announced the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) Innovation and Entrepreneurship Collaborative (IEC). The HBCU Innovation and Entrepreneurship Collaborative will be a cohort of 15 HBCUs (both private and public) that are committed to participating in a multi-year collaboration that will foster innovation, commercialization and entrepreneurship on their respective campuses. This collaborative will build off of the momentum that was established by the UNCF lead 2013 HBCU Innovation Summit that was held at Stanford University.

Virginia State University (VSU) is one of the selected universities that will have the opportunity to participate in a collaborative community seeking to increase innovation and entrepreneurship across disciplines (i.e., Agriculture, Business, Science, Mathematics, Engineering and Technology, etc.) in order to build an innovation ecosystem among institutions, administrators, faculty and students, the federal government and private industry. This cohort of HBCUs will be able to access current and future funding opportunities that will be available only to those universities that commit to participate in this unique collaborative. 

Strategy# 1: Changing the Potential Value on Virginia State University's Campus

Tactic #1: 3DS Springboard

Discription: 3 Day Startup’s mission is to kick-start new student-run companies and build entrepreneurial capabilities in students and their university communities. We rent work space for 3 full days, recruit 45 student participants from a wide range of backgrounds, cater food and drinks, and bring in top-notch entrepreneurs and investors. The participants pick the best ideas for startups during the Day 1 brainstorming session and deliver prototypes and investor pitches on the final night.3DS Springboard is an interactive workshop focused on the beginning steps of launching a company or a project through on-campus innovation. Over four 90-minute sessions over  one week, you will learn-by-doing with the 3DS team, Epicenter Innovation Fellow leaders on your campus, and other students in your community who are passionate about starting something!

What can I start with 3DS Springboard?

A company, a project, a movement–3DS Springboard teaches entrepreneurship skills such as ideation, customer discovery, and pitching in the context of making real-world progress on anything you want to start.

Who is eligible to participate? 

20-40 current students at each of the participating schools.

What is the cost to participate?

This workshop is free but you must complete all modules to get your pitch in front of the global audience of influencers, investors, and innovators.

Strategy #2 Expose non-STEM students to Innovation and Entrepreneurship

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Tactic #1 Innovation to Innovation and Entrepreneurship Course

Tactic #2 Innnovation and Entrepreneurship Complementary Studies

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Strategy #3 Increase Student-Driven Commercialization

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VSU has stated that it will "support innovation in business and the commercialization of intellectual property through growing a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship, securing an increased number of patents, and establishing a technology transfer center to support the creation of new business and technology transfer enterprises"

Tactic #1 Venture Capital Challenge

Tactic #2 Local Tech Collaboration

VSU has stated that it wants to "explore public/private collaborative relationships with developers, contractors, and other commercial groups and entities to develop new environmentally sustainable and technologically advanced administrative and student residential facilities, to expand Morgan’s physical presence throughout the State, and to promote the State and the Morgan brand."

-local companies/businesses create projects to be completed by students