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Converse College
Converse College is an all-women’s college in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Founded in 1889, Converse continues to adhere to its founders ideals, seeking to provide a comprehensive liberal arts education to young women from across the globe. It has received press in past years for lowering its tuition by 43 percent. In 2014, it ranked 23rd among Regional University South’s college rankings.
Promoting student innovation and entrepreneurship
Students are encouraged to participate in innovative activities, provide solutions for campus-wide problems, and create programs or organizations to tackle them. There is no formalized problem solving or venture creation process, but some channels students can access when looking to implement solutions or open dialogue are the individual study departments, student life offices, student government association, and the president's office.
Encouraging faculty innovation and entrepreneurship
Faculty are encouraged to engage in innovative teaching methods, including addressing typical subject matters in out of the box ways. This includes everthing from teaching economics through Harry Potter, to creating a Career Peer mentoring service through the Career Development Center. However, there is no formailzed system through with teachers and faculty are spurred to push entrepreneurship and innovation in the classroom. Innovation is pursued on a personal basis, and is a direct response to students clamoring for better options.
Actively supporting the university technology transfer function
Converse currently has no formalized function to support student ventures on campus. Students looking for venture support should look to outside sources of information, like the Algernon Sydney Sullivan Social Entrepreneurship Retreat, area businesses such as the Iron Yard, or like-minded students on campus to either start an initiative for a formalized function or receive specialized instruction for their individual ventures.
Facilitating University-Industry Collaboration
Converse currently has no formalized partnerships with companies or groups in the space of I&E, however, individual students have gone on to work with local incubators, labs, art studios, and so on. However, the fruits of these individual partnerships have not resulted in permanent relationships with the insitution. Converse would fare well to more succinctly create these partnerships, so interested students have pipelines to follow once interested.
Engaging with Regional and Local Development Efforts
As an Algernon Sydney Sullivan school, Converse has a longstanding tradition of service to others. In recent years, this focus has continued on to social entrepreneurship. A select number of collegiate courses are dedicated to Social Entrepreneurship’s applications in the surrounding community, and worldwide. Particularly interested individuals can choose to attend the Sullivan Social Enterprise retreat in the fall or spring sessions. Converse has also sent a team to the foundation’s social venture competition. Converse continues to increase its Social entrepreneurship offerings, from courses and seminars to exploratory learning trips.
Future
In 2014, Converse funded its first university Innovation Fellow, Nadia Gathers. Funding this program has put Converse’s dedication to constant growth and institution-wide innovation at the forefront. It joins other upstate universities in the program, including Wofford, Clemson, and Furman.
Converse currently offers extensive programs in skills such as leadership, managerial processes, and others necessary to build a successful repertoire outside of college or university. It also provides multiple opportunities for students to conduct individualized institutional research. Presently, they offer only one course specifically geared towards entrepreneurship and has no formalized internal structures for individuals to pursue such a path if they are interested. Although it’s entrepreneurial ecosystem is in its infancy, Converse’s dedication to fostering female leadership and excellence primes it for a revolution in the space.
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