SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--A new campus-wide initiative at Santa Clara University will create a central hub to guide, coordinate and elevate the innovation and entrepreneurship efforts of students across campus—from those studying arts and humanities, to engineering students, to business or science majors.
Santa Clara University’s expanded and re-envisioned Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) will unify and build upon existing programming designed to spur innovation and entrepreneurship, such as the current startup competitions and mentoring at the Leavey School of Business; virtual- and augmented-reality experimentation underway in the College of Arts and Sciences’ Imaginarium space; the engineering school’s prototyping Maker Lab; and the five-year-old Entrepreneurs’ Law Clinic at the School of Law.
The University is actively soliciting significant new funding to support this bold vision, with an aim of creating an “entrepreneurial mindset” across campus.
Current programs will be supplemented by new initiatives coordinated by CIE. Among the initiatives under consideration:
- ”Design thinking” courses
- Joint certificates or degrees in areas such as product innovation or new-venture management
- A larger, more-robust program of speakers, tours, design challenges, and hackathons
- Research support for faculty
- Expanding or supplementing current courses on the ethics, theology, sociology of innovation and entrepreneurship
“The graduates of the future likely will have 10 or more jobs—in many cases in fields that have yet to be envisioned,” said Caryn Beck-Dudley, dean of the Leavey School of Business, who worked with campus partners to coordinate the new CIE. “Across all disciplines, our students will be more agile and adaptive if they are part of an ecosystem that instills a passion for innovation and entrepreneurship.”
CIE also will infuse its programming with distinct characteristics: a Jesuit perspective— teaching behaviors that reflect critical thought and responsible action on moral and ethical issues; authentic entrepreneurial learning experiences—“embedding” students in companies for observation and long-term projects, and supporting student startups; and the entrepreneurial mindset—using a uniquely Jesuit lens, students will be encouraged to learn fundamentals of value creation and discern whether their innovations create value or solve socially meaningful problems.
For more on CIE please see https://bit.ly/2RR76WF.
