The Center for Entrepreneurship at CU-Â鶹¹ÙÍø, a joint venture between the colleges of business and engineering, has just received a $500,000 grant from the Price Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies.
“This represents a huge step forward for our entrepreneurship program – it will definitely help to move us to the next level,” said Denis Nock, the center’s director. “Foundation grants of this size for university entrepreneurship programs are pretty rare,” he said.
Nock said the three-year grant will be used to enhance existing programs and launch several new student-centered programs, including an undergraduate entrepreneurship internship program for both business and engineering students and a new MBA entrepreneurship consulting/solutions group.
The new funding also will be used to:
• Continue the Price Institute Fellows program for MBA students;
• Enhance the successful MBA summer entrepreneurial internship program, which last summer placed 43 students with innovative companies;
• Provide stipends for doctoral entrepreneurship students;
• Fund the research and writing of new entrepreneurship case studies and updates to the set of cases created at CU last year.
The grant also will change the dynamics of the Projects with Entrepreneurial Companies course taught by Professor Dale Meyer. Students in this class are strategically matched with new and emerging growth companies where they work with founders, CEOs and top managers on strategies, projects or issues for a semester.
“Because of the Price grant, these students will now be able to work with the same companies as interns during the summer and receive enviable stipends,” Nock said.
“In so many ways, this donation is directly in line with our vision of a Total Learning Environment,” said CU President John Buechner. “We will be able to broaden our innovative partnerships between CU and private businesses and simultaneously serve the university community and industry.”
Organizations participating in MeyerÂ’s projects class this semester include Centennial Funds, HuerisTec, Koala Corp, Match Logic, Green, Manning and Bunch, Achieve Communications, Chipsea, Gold Systems, Outlast Technologies, Roser Ventures and Storage TechnologyÂ’s Solutions Development Group.