School:Beloit College
Contents
Overview
A true entrepreneur when confronted with a problem will instead see a potential opportunity to innovate. Beloit College provides a perfect environment for aspiring entrepreneurs to develop their skills. Being a liberal arts college Beloit College’s main goal is to produce well-rounded individuals, who have the tools necessary to critically look at an idea and improve on it. Both the schools administration and faculty have hole heartedly embraced the idea of entrepreneurship being a vital part of a modern day liberal arts education. It has began to be implemented in every department on the campus in a variety of ways.
In 2004 the college opened the doors to its very own entrepreneurship center. The Center for Entrepreneurship in a Liberal Education at Beloit or CELEB is filled with many of the resources that are vital to a start-up. It can provide students with inspiration, office space, legal advice, start-up funds, and the tools they need to establish a legitimate venture. If students are looking to get their hands dirty there is a full machine shop that anyone can get access to. Also there are several labs, and facilities in the brand new science center.
If students need assistance with an idea or using equipment Beloit College’s amazing faculty can help them. With 98% of professors having a Ph.D. and a 12:1 student to faculty ratio there is an endless amount of talent and advice available for students to take advantage of.
Student Innovation and Entrepreneurship
CELEB
Students at Beloit College looking to gain the skills and knowledge needed for a start-up or research do not need to look very hard. At Beloit College there is an entire center dedicated to helping student with what ever they may need. It is named the Center for Entrepreneurship in Liberal Education at Beloit College or CELEB for short. CELEB was founded in 2004 spear headed by Economics Professor and past Entrepreneurship Chair Jerry Gustafson.
CELEB consists of 6 different departments which together make up CELEB. They are the Coleman New Ventures Lab, Gallery ABBA, Maple Tree Studio, BATV, and the WISE Foundation.
Coleman New Ventures Lab
The Coleman New Ventures Lab is an incubator for student businesses. It offers offices for student run ventures complete with telephone, internet, conference rooms, receptionists, and expert advice on site. It can provide vital services to new start-ups like legal or business advice and free server space for the hosting of a website or a database app. It also serves as the meeting place for weekly entrepreneurship classes and a place to host various speakers or clubs.
Gallery ABBA
Gallery ABBA is a commercial art gallery run entirely by students. It embraces the idea of the Art of Business and the Business of Art. It gives student the opportunity to show, promote and sell their art of any medium and provides an entry into the business side of the art world.
Maple Tree Studio
Maple Tree Studio is fully functioning audio recording studio. Here students can learn the skills that are vital to be successful in todays music industry. Skills like learning the necessary software like Pro-Tools to learning how to record, edit, and mix music and sound. There are many students who have started successful record labels and started their careers from maple tree studio.
BATV
BATV is a well-equipped, fully functioning television station. Students are able to learn the skills needed to produce high quality video content and the skills needed for the television industry. Includes a full editing studio that any student can get access to. For a start-up today being able to display, market, and pitch their products and services is crucial to determining success or failure. The BATV studio gives students the tools and talent they need to create a professional image in the intense online environment where many start-ups gain recognition and find funding.
WISE Foundation
WISE is a student run foundation focused on solving problems that relate to the question "What is Social Excellence?" Its Mission is to investigate the elements of a truly good society, one that would offer joy and fulfillment to its members. WISE may promote panel presentations of various experts, engage students and others in careful discussion, commission white papers on particular topics, bring entrepreneurs and students together for sessions to promote values-clarification, or write proposals to real-world foundations to support such activities. While WISE staff work to shed light on what makes social life good, they also research the industry and visit the executives of actual foundations so as to learn about this special corner of the business world. WISE gives student experience with what running a foundation would be like and crucial leadership experience that any entrepreneur needs. It also gives students the chance to accept and decline grant proposals and see what makes up a successful proposal.
Maker Spaces
On-Campus
At Beloit there are several options for students who need access to some sort of maker space. Just opened in the spring of 2016 is the BC MakerLab. The space contains two MakerBot 3D printers, a 3D scanner, a vinyl cutter, and other crafting tools.The science center, which opened in 2009, has several labs that any student can get access to by either taking an intro level class or working with a professor who oversee's the equipment. Equipment the students at Beloit College have access includes a scanning electron microscope, 3D visulation display system, and many biological and chemical testing machines. There is also a machine shop with a vast amount of tools and machines that are capable of fabricating an entire car from scratch.
Off-Campus
If students can't find the tool or resources they need to build a prototype at Beloit there a several options to choose from. An hour north in Madison is Sector67 a 8,500 square foot maker space which offers classes and equipment for whatever you might need to do. They have equipment like welders, mills, lathes, and 3D printers. An hour and a half top the north east in Milwaukee is the Milwaukee Maker Space a 16,000 square foot building filled with almost any tool ever made. Both of these location have extremely well established community's that will help you with what ever your final goal is.
Grants
Venture Grants
Venture grants are awarded to students who have a research idea, business, or a project they want to work on. They are up to $2000 and can support anything from research expenses to travel costs.
Liberal Arts in Practice Center
The Liberal Arts in Practice Center (LAPC) has a variety of grants students can apply for depending on what they are working on. Some are for students who are doing an unpaid internships for a small start-up to see how they run and operate and get extremely valuable knowledge of entrepreneurship in practice.
National Grants
At Beloit the The Office of Corporate and Foundation Relations, CELEB, and The LAPC all offer support and guidence to students trying to apply for grants and fellowships. They can help with finding grants and also the actual writing of the grant proposal.
Faculty Innovation and Entrepreneurship
While many of the grants available at Beloit College are for students The Office of Corporate and Foundation Relations is available to support faculty with the grant proposal process. Since Beloit is such a small school and also purely dedicated to undergraduate education the faculty are very involved with supporting student ventures. Lastly every major at Beloit requires a cap-stone class. This is usually some type of research that the professor's gets to work with students to help produce. Since the professors are working with students they are able to use all the resources that students have access to.
University Technology Transfer Function
Within CELEB there are many resources that will help students shift their student research or idea to a comercial business. If they need help with how to make money off an idea there are many different professors, alums, and local business leaders who would be willing to offer advice. There are also many knowledgable individuals that can offer legal support to a new start-up.
Regional and Local Economic Development Efforts
Beloit College is the second largest employer in the City of Beloit and is vital for the survival of the city. It provides a huge amount of jobs and economic stimulus for the local economy. Beloit also has strong ties with several employers in the region that consistently hire Beloit graduates. Most campus resources are available to the Beloit community to encourage growth and innovation beyond the campus.
Landscape Canvas
Related Links
Beloit College Student Priorities
University Innovation Fellows:
Spring 2016 Thomas Porkka
Spring 2015 Hunter Elbourn
Fall 2013 Ellery Addington-White
Related links
