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Ohio University is a beautiful campus with a plethora of entrepreneurship and innovation resources; however, the problem lies in the disconnect amonst the various great opportunities on campus! There are plenty of students interested in exploring their ideas, but very few know where to begin their innovation journey -- that's where we hope to come in with programming to educate about entrepreneurship and the facilities to support new ideas.
{{#Widget:Youtube|id=34BGBQisgsc}} <br/><span style="color: rgb(0See Spring 2014 project pitch video above, 0, 0by John Herbert.); font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Link if video isn't working: </span>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34BGBQisgsc&feature=youtu.be https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34BGBQisgsc&feature=youtu.be]
[[Ohio University Student Priorities]]'''RTENOTITLE'''
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= Overview = Ohio University is a beautiful campus with a plethora of entrepreneurship and innovation resources; however, the problem lies in the disconnect amongst the various great opportunities on campus! There are plenty of students interested in exploring their ideas, but very few know where to begin their innovation journey -- that's where we hope to come in with programming to educate about entrepreneurship and the facilities to support new ideas. = Project Pitch Video = Spring 2016 Projects {{#Widget:Youtube|id= 6n4nCq2N6WM}} Spring 2015 {{#Widget:Youtube|id=MUCA2u_Z5pY}} Spring 2014 {{#Widget:Youtube|id=34BGBQisgsc}}
== Strategy 1: Increase Entrepreneurial Knowledge ==
In the Classroom
Entrepreneurship majors and certificates are a fantastic step in the right direction for increasing student access to I&E, but we can't stop there! Far too [[File:WalterHall.jpg|thumb|WalterHall.jpg]]many students are under the impression that they need to be a business or engineering major in order to benefit from basic entrepreneurship knowledge. Long story short, those students are as good as excluded regardless of the decidedly inclusive pamphlets and course descriptions that are sent out.
Because of this, our first strategy for augmenting Ohio University's entrepreneurial impact is getting basic entrepreneurship coursework into every introductory and career orientation class. English major or pre-med, basic entrepreneurial knowledge will help to set students up for success after graduation by instilling in them the fact that entrepreneurship is an option, and one they have an understanding of, regardless of wether they pursue their own company,
Residential Aspect
There are many universities that have living/learning residencial residential options available to their students that wish to commit themselves to an idea or project for the semester, year, or longer. Ohio University could benefit from having this sort of immersive entrepreneurship experience where everyone in a dorm was excited to brainstorm and innovate in hopes of creating a better tomorrow.[[File:NewSouth.jpg|thumb|NewSouth.jpg]]
Workspace
Brick and Mortar
In a technologically advancing world, more and more is being accomplished through electronic platforms, but there is nothing like a face-to-face meeting with an important stakeholder to get someone excited about entrepreneurship. Through having a physical location for an entrepreneurship hub, Ohio University aims to provide a space for those sorts of meetings to happen. Additionally, this space will have ideation laboratories, brainstromming brainstroming rooms, and a "zen" office (free of any tech) to give students the best chance of success when working on the different aspects of their idea (including coming up with one in the first place).
Online Resources
The online resources available through the University Innovation Fellows Program have been invaluable in developing a better understanding of Ohio [[File:MakerSpace.jpeg|thumb|MakerSpace.jpeg]]University's entrepreneurial ecosystem; our wish is to give that same benefit to students on campus by having some solely online entrepreneurship and innovation resources. For those students who have great ideas but aren't yet ready to "commit to entrepreneurship" (because as we know, it ''does'' change your life), these resources will be a way for them to explore and get more information, without "alerting the media." Additionally, many of the online resources will be relevant for anyone with a new idea -- a club, event, travel -- in order to figure out what the most important tasks are for them to complete (design thinking in action)!
Ohio University Project Pitch Video:
== Priority #1: Real Opportunity: Building the Entrepreneurial Co-op Program, validating it, and growing a version of it in every department, culminating in a collaborative version that brings students together to form startup teams. ==
I've spent the last academic year building this program in the engineering department. It started out with a problem that was defined by a disagreement I had with the advisor for Ohio University Entrepreneurs (I wanted the student organization to start businesses and he said the students wouldn't have time). The problem was that students didn't have the capability to throw all of the time and energy required to start a business in one semester into that business, because of their class schedule and other activities requiring the bulk of their time. The business would distract from study, and the study would distract from the business. I was determined to find an answer to this, so I kept it in the back of my head for a few days. Then it came to me! In the previous year, I had taken an entire semester off from classes to do an engineering job at GE and was still considered a full-time student, but no one complained about it because "co-ops" have been considered par for the course in engineering. I thought, "What if we adapted the back end of the co-op model to entrepreneurship by simply stripping away 'student is going to go work for X' and replacing it with 'student is starting X business?'" I started working with a Dean of Engineering (Dr. Giesey) to build a prototype of the course, which I've been going through for the last two semesters. The current plan is to get all the bugs worked out, and then offer the program to any engineering student who wants to pursue entrepreneurial opportunities this coming fall.
== Priority #3: Awareness of resources and involvement: ''Get Up!'' Movement ==
The ''Get Up!'' movement will be a means of tapping into the schedules of multiple programs and organizations in order to provide students with a running itinerary of everthing everything I&E-related happening that day. Student champions will track events and activities at multiple I&E-related organizations and produce a weekly newsletter that makes it easy for a student to find events that match up with their free time and make better use of it by learning and doing more I&E.
We already have students and local hackers working together on an aggregator project called Startlocal, which will make it possible for anyone to start a page for their town/school and allow others to crowdsource local I&E resources. This website/app will also aggregate blog posts, newsletters, etc. from relevant programs and organizations to provide a single updated feed of what's going on in the area.
[[Ohio University]]
University Innovation Fellows
