School:Wake Forest University

Student innovation and entrepreneurship

The Wake Forest Center for Innovation, Creativity, and Entrepreneurship (CICE) leads the entrepreneurship community at Wake Forest University. This center was developed in 2003 and since then has grown to be the most popular minor on campus. The Center for Innovation, Creativity and Entrepreneurship is considered an academic program which has allowed the Entrepreneurship and Social Enterprise (ESE) minor to brand itself on campus. By this I mean that students recognize the minor because it is not hidden in the business school or in a large academic department. This center has developed its niche on campus and expanded throughout all disciplines and across all majors on campus. Students at Wake Forest University have found this minor extremely useful, practical and fun. It allows the science and liberal arts students to develop their passion into a venture or practical entity in which they can make an impact. Each year, more students declare an ESE minor showing the growing importance of innovation and entrepreneurship to students.  

The three focuses of this program for students has been as follows:

1) Cultivation of widespread innovation and entrepreneurship on campus

This goal has raised awareness of the importance of entrepreneurship across disciplines in the 21st century. Students at Wake Forest avail themselves of the collaborative environment on campus to create an impact and improve their university, community and region. Each year about 4 to 8 startups are founded through the CICE program on campus. These ventures span from efficient door-to-door  laundry services (Wake Wash) to a buy back company for broken cell phones (Buyback Boss) all of which provide credence to the healthy I&E environment on campus.  Furthermore, students in the liberal arts and science colleges are able to learn about grant writing, business plans, industry analysis, and forecasting through Seed Grant Workshops conducted by the ESE program each semester. These workshops prepare students for grant writing and pitching ideas to CICE faculty for seed grants funds. Students are provided with guidance from CICE faculty, the advisory counsel, and connections through the university. In the spring, the Entrepreneurship community will welcome its first Entrepreneur in Residence who will co-teach classes and provide students with an invaluable resource. Lastly, large events have such as Global Entrepreneurship Week, I.C.E Speaker Series, and TEDxWakeForestU have added to the innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem at Wake Forest. 

2) Strength the value and relevance of Innovation, Creativity and Entrepreneurship in a liberal arts education

Through this goal students are exposed to a wide variety of classes, clubs, and possible internships. The ESE minor requires core courses but also allows students to branch out and take a multitude of interdisciplinary courses which expose students to how they can mix innovation and entrepreneurship into their passion. Furthermore, two major clubs, the E-Society and Enactus have developed this program into a prominent entity on campus for student entrepreneurs. Lastly, the Center for Innovation, Creativity and Entrepreneurship bolsters this sense of combining entrepreneurship into your passion by allocating funds for summer internship stipends. This allows students to start their own venture over the summer or work for a venture anywhere in the world while having some financial support. 

3) Augmentation of the social entrepreneurship scene through new experiential learning

The University motto of Pro Humanitate (For Humanity) is held dear to many of us here at Wake Forest. We believe that social impact and entrepreneurship can lead to great impact on campus and throughout our local community. The C.I.C.E. has focused on providing students with classes to learn more about potential social opportunities as well as how to make social impacts vs. commercial impacts. This distinction can sometimes be difficult; however, with new reinvented programs and classes, the Center for Innovation, Creativity, and Entrepreneurship hopes to educate students keeping the idea of Pro Humanitate in the forefront. 

Overall, I am extremely hopeful for the student innovation and entrepreneurship on Wake Forest's campus. For the future, I see several changes that can increase student collaboration, opportunity, and entrepreneurship on campus

Other

TEDxWakeForest is has become a signature event in showcasing innovation and entrepreneurship at Wake Forest. University Innovation Fellow Christina Oelsner and her two TEDx co-chairs attracted over 1,000 participants with a slate of speakers that included alumn Ricky Van Ween, founder of CollegeHumor.com.

TEDxWakeForest began in 2012 spearheaded by University Innovation Fellow Lucy Lan and her team who attracted close to 1,400 participants featuring TED Fellow and Wake scientist Anthony Atala who is known for his work in 3D-printing a human kidney using stem cells.

The first University Innovation Fellow at Wake Forest was Billy Oelsner.