As Program Coordinator Joe Roberts
discovered, students were eager for the
learning opportunities provided by Project
Directors and Fellows. “Listen, it’s not
about us,” he said. “It’s about the success
of students. The students were already
thinking about entrepreneurship. We were
talking about doing this and doing that. The
students were saying, ‘Hey, guys, whether
you do it or not, I’m already there.’”
Entrepreneurship education expanded horizons for students, as demonstrated by the experience of Todd Alexander, a Ph.D. student at Worcester Polytechnic Institution. “Typically, people only see two paths in science: academia or industry,” says Alexander. “The courses that included entrepreneurship were not designed to encourage everyone to become selfemployed, but to challenge the idea of binary options.”
Alexander is developing antimicrobials to combat antibiotic resistance. He has been influenced by Fellow Glenn Gaudette and Project Director Frank Hoy, who co-taught a number of classes that combined science with entrepreneurship and occasionally brought in local entrepreneurs, who added to students’ skills and confidence.
Alexander said he had not planned to be an entrepreneur, but Gaudette, who had his own business, “brought an enthusiasm that made it possible for me to be enthusiastic too.” In 2016, he and a colleague began AMProtection, a business based on a novel microbial technology. They secured grants and won competitions, but were forced to close after two years due to a timing issue with funding. “Without the classes, I don’t know if I would have had the knowledge or the courage to try. I learned that failure is okay, and it’s okay to take risks.” Alexander said he plans to start up another venture in the future. “That was my first company, not my last company.”
Alexander is an example of a student whose entrepreneurship education led him to business creation. As noted earlier, the age group least likely to be business owners are adults under 35. This fact makes it difficult to quantify the short-term impact of entrepreneurship education, since a longer timeline and purposeful tracking would be needed to truly evaluate results. Anecdotal evidence strongly suggests that some students find self-employment a compelling option even before graduation. Gina Betti at Worcester Polytechnic comments: “When you hear an engineering student talk about value creation, or a science student talk about intellectual property, they’re starting to speak our language and we’re starting to understand the confines and the constraints in which they operate. We’ve lowered fear of business. We’ve really increased respect for self-employment.”
Project Directors and Fellows described a continuum of student engagement:
Sridhar Condoor, a Fellow in the School of Engineering at Saint Louis University, comments that “the real beneficiary is the students. The next generation graduating is much more entrepreneurially minded. They have a better sense of the value proposition, which will help them launch better. Their future economic impact may not be quantifiable, but it will be significant.”
Project Director Dianne Welsh at University of North Carolina at Greensboro projected even further into the future:
The Fellows Program has changed lives and will make generational differences for families. Many will be self-employed, and will create businesses that will hire others. Families in Greensboro have worked in mills and tobacco – they never went to college and they never had their own business. If not for the Coleman Fellows, kids would never have their own business. But former students have created businesses: selling guitars, putting out a shingle for management consulting, and opening an athletic clothing business.
As Program Coordinator Joe Roberts
discovered, students were eager for the
learning opportunities provided by Project
Directors and Fellows. “Listen, it’s not
about us,” he said. “It’s about the success
of students. The students were already
thinking about entrepreneurship. We were
talking about doing this and doing that. The
students were saying, ‘Hey, guys, whether
you do it or not, I’m already there.’”
Entrepreneurship education expanded horizons for students, as demonstrated by the experience of Todd Alexander, a Ph.D. student at Worcester Polytechnic Institution. “Typically, people only see two paths in science: academia or industry,” says Alexander. “The courses that included entrepreneurship were not designed to encourage everyone to become selfemployed, but to challenge the idea of binary options.”
Alexander is developing antimicrobials to combat antibiotic resistance. He has been influenced by Fellow Glenn Gaudette and Project Director Frank Hoy, who co-taught a number of classes that combined science with entrepreneurship and occasionally brought in local entrepreneurs, who added to students’ skills and confidence.
Alexander said he had not planned to be an entrepreneur, but Gaudette, who had his own business, “brought an enthusiasm that made it possible for me to be enthusiastic too.” In 2016, he and a colleague began AMProtection, a business based on a novel microbial technology. They secured grants and won competitions, but were forced to close after two years due to a timing issue with funding. “Without the classes, I don’t know if I would have had the knowledge or the courage to try. I learned that failure is okay, and it’s okay to take risks.” Alexander said he plans to start up another venture in the future. “That was my first company, not my last company.”
Alexander is an example of a student whose entrepreneurship education led him to business creation. As noted earlier, the age group least likely to be business owners are adults under 35. This fact makes it difficult to quantify the short-term impact of entrepreneurship education, since a longer timeline and purposeful tracking would be needed to truly evaluate results. Anecdotal evidence strongly suggests that some students find self-employment a compelling option even before graduation. Gina Betti at Worcester Polytechnic comments: “When you hear an engineering student talk about value creation, or a science student talk about intellectual property, they’re starting to speak our language and we’re starting to understand the confines and the constraints in which they operate. We’ve lowered fear of business. We’ve really increased respect for self-employment.”
Project Directors and Fellows described a continuum of student engagement:
Sridhar Condoor, a Fellow in the School of Engineering at Saint Louis University, comments that “the real beneficiary is the students. The next generation graduating is much more entrepreneurially minded. They have a better sense of the value proposition, which will help them launch better. Their future economic impact may not be quantifiable, but it will be significant.”
Project Director Dianne Welsh at University of North Carolina at Greensboro projected even further into the future:
The Fellows Program has changed lives and will make generational differences for families. Many will be self-employed, and will create businesses that will hire others. Families in Greensboro have worked in mills and tobacco – they never went to college and they never had their own business. If not for the Coleman Fellows, kids would never have their own business. But former students have created businesses: selling guitars, putting out a shingle for management consulting, and opening an athletic clothing business.