School:University of Richmond
Promoting student innovation and entrepreneurship: The University of Richmond provides many valuable resources for students to learn and pursue their path of innovation and entrepreneurship. Our school has developed Living-Learning Programs, such as Richmond Endeavor and Sophomore Scholars in Residence. Many professors also incorporate elements of innovation and entrepreneurship into their courses. So, many students are learning the concepts of innovation and entrepreneurship from their classes. Additionally, we hold inspirational events for students to engage with I&E in-depth, including speaker series, symposiums, and Jepson Leadership Forum. Our school also offers how-to workshops to teach students how to apply our knowledge to real-world contexts. Our Marketing and Communication strategies effectively help the school let students know these opportunities on campus. Media, such as Spiderbytes, UR Collegian Newspaper and Forum Magazine, presents a clear image of what students can learn and achieve on campus. The University of Richmond helps enable students’ passion for innovation and entrepreneurship by directly creating courses for this specific category in both undergraduate and graduate levels. Students themselves also create extracurricular activities related to I&E, such as Entrepreneurship Club and Seeds Project. Students are encouraged to enhance their learning by participating in the Business Pitch Competition, Jepson Ethics Bowl, and more. The Career Service at the University of Richmond also offers students tour to the Virginia Startups, where many startups gather. More importantly, the University of Richmond emphasizes how students apply what they have already learned to practice. The school provides fundings called Richmond Guarantee for students to start research with professors and internships at different corporations. There are hundreds of places where students gain hands-on experiences, such as brainstorming activities, group projects, experiments, prototypes, and technical training. In addition to the spaces on campus, student employment offers students to experience the real-life work environment and helps them get ready for their professional careers after graduation.
Encouraging faculty innovation and entrepreneurship:
Actively supporting the university technology transfer function:
Facilitating university-industry collaboration: The University of Richmond currently has 2 sustained options that prepare students for long term ventures. The Business Pitch Compeition and the McWick Case Competition provide students with the opportunity to either develop sensible, sound business plan or evaluate a business case. Both opportunities provide students a short term learning experience that aids in skill development. Both projects project monetary prizes, but to our knowledge these prizes are not enough to sustain or kick-start a fullly fleshed out venture. The University of Richmond currently lacks and infastructure that provides seed, venture or capital funding for individaul students ventures outside of academic research. Although a varitey of funds are available for academic research, these funds are typically awarded on the basis of stringent requirements being met and mostly do not appeal to students who posess the interest in developing a long-term business or venture. The University of Richmond does not maintain a technology transfer office of any sort as it does not seem fesaible for the University to operate with limited patents, copyrights, inventions, etc that are a result of University design.
Engaging with regional and local economic development efforts: The University of Richmond approaches regional and local innovation and entrepreneurship in very limited ways. Upon review, the University of Richmond offers connections with a variety of regional innovation opportunities and networks such as the Greater Richmond Chamber, The Venture Forum, and Feast RVA. These networks and organizations provide some resources to University of Richmond students, but looking at current student outcomes, it seems that these services and networks are not highly utilized or even highlighted or pointed out to students who might possesses an interest in exploring or developing a startup culture after the completion of the undergraduate studies.
