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Because Swarthmore is a teaching rather than research based university, professors are encouraged to focus on students and classes rather than their own projects. Nevertheless, the Lang Visiting Professor, Denise Crossan, is a prime example of faculty entrepreneurship on campus. She is working on a social innovation map, which charts all kinds of entrepreneurial activities going on at Swarthmore. She has also created a Swarthmore Social Innovation Lab and has helped to spearhead the Presidential Sustainability Research Fellowship Program, which connects faculty and students over sustainability initiatives on campus. Denise is also the faculty advisor for the University Innovation Fellows chapter at Swarthmore. We hope that she will encourage entrepreneurial activity in other faculty and staff!
= Facilitating University-Industry Collaboration=
''Center for Innovation and Leadership trip to San Francisco''
The Center for Innovation and Leadership (CIL) at Swarthmore seeks to build capacity for entrepreneurship and leadership, by fostering collaboration and innovation while promoting experimentation, collaboration, and reflection. One of the ways the CIL implements its mission, is a fully funded 6-day intensive trip to San Francisco. During this trip, a group of ten students visit Swarthmore alumni at major companies in San Francisco and Silicon Valley. The tech-oriented nature of the trip, allows students to engage with a variety of entrepreneurs in start-up, venture capital, and tech communities.
''Externship Program''
Swarthmore’s externship program allows students to participate in a one-week shadowing experience with alumni, which in turn gives a glimpse into specific careers. The externships offered encompass a variety of different sectors, and provide students with the ability to learn from, and connect with alumni that are experts in their respective fields.
=Regional and Local Economic Development Efforts=
Firstly, '''180 Degrees Consulting''' is a national student consulting group that offers free consulting services to nonprofits. A selected few students at Swarthmore are trained to support startups and nonprofits in various fields from education to healthcare with consulting services. These startups and nonprofits can be located all over the US and students carry weekly meetings with their management teams to provide their services.
Secondly, the '''Lang Center for Social and Civic Responsibility''' is heading Swarthmore’s Regional and Local Economic Development. The mission of the Lang Center for Social and Civic Responsibility is to connect “curriculum, campus and community through engaged scholarship and collaborative action.” Not only does it provide students with engagement, counseling, and networking opportunities for action outside of Swarthmore College, but it also provides students with funding opportunities that can last beyond a summer project. The most prominent example is Project Pericles.
'''Project Pericles''' empowers students to take on “social and civic action projects whose scope and sustainability will advance solutions for the issues in question and also promote recognition of students' motivation and capability to address such major issues effectively.” It offers grants of up to $25, 000 for regional, national, or international projects. Some of the Project Pericles awardees went on to develop sustainable eyewear in Iran or implement geospatial analysis tools to increase wider scope food security in the Philadelphia area.
However, outside of the Lang Center for Social and Civic Responsibility and 180 Degrees Consulting, there are no concrete technology/industrial/wet lab spaces nor outside Lang Center financing opportunities (i.e. VC, angels) that encourage and support grassroot student commercialized enterprises/projects to continue and pivot over a 3 to 10 year span.
