Wake Forest’s Center for Entrepreneurship received a $30 million donation, one of the most significant in the university’s history, from an anonymous donor last month. According to a press release, the donor had one driving question that motivated their support of the entrepreneurship program:
“What important ideas are we missing by not having more opportunities for students to participate in entrepreneurship classes?”
The donation allows for entrepreneurship faculty hiring, the creation of new courses and eventually support the construction of a state-of-the-art facility to house the program.
“This gift – and the inspiration it will spark – are vital to shaping the future achievements of students, faculty, staff and alumni,” Wake Forest President Susan Wente said.
The entrepreneurship program has become increasingly popular, with over 400 students enrolled in courses last fall. To accommodate the increase in enrollment, the donation will lead to the addition of four full-time professors in the College of Arts and Sciences over the next two years. The entrepreneurship program will have the ability to double the amount of course offerings, which will decrease class sizes. The courses within the program are available to undergraduate students with any major. The courses are designed based on four milestones for developing an entrepreneurial mindset, which are:
- Learning what it means to launch a business from the ground up from practicing entrepreneurs
- Understanding proven strategies on how to generate innovative ideas
- Determining which ideas are most likely to succeed
- Scaling a startup into a profitable business venture
Jackie Krasas, dean of the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, said that smaller class sizes will allow the development of future entrepreneurs to be more robust.
“Wake Forest is committed to educating and inspiring the next generation of entrepreneurs through transformational teaching and experiential learning opportunities,” Krasas said. “Small classes and meaningful faculty-student engagement are at the heart of a Wake Forest education. This gift supports our Strategic Framework, and in particular our community of learning, and builds our capacity to prepare and support the next generation of innovative thinkers.”
Part of the $30 million will also be allocated towards constructing a space for the entrepreneurship program. This space will include Deacon Springboard, an accelerator program for students with business ideas, and Startup Lab, a program designed for startup development. John C. Whitaker Jr., executive director of the Center for Entrepreneurship and Dan Cohen, professor of the practice, explained that the donation as a whole will further the mission of the program and create more student opportunities.
“This investment will jumpstart our capacity to drive promising entrepreneurial ventures through our nationally acclaimed system and increase the quality and quantity of student startups,” Cohen said.
Sophomore Nishu Shah expressed her excitement about intending to minor in entrepreneurship and how this passion began from a young age.
“I’ve always kind of enjoyed the startup side of the business world, and when I was younger I had all of these fun small businesses starting with a lemonade stand and bake sales,” Shah said. “In high school, I was involved in entrepreneurship clubs, which I really enjoyed.”
She continued: “I know that there are great professors who have a lot of experience with starting their own businesses, so they can speak to that. I have heard that in some classes you have to come up with a product and pitch it, which seems really interesting to me.”
Despite her enthusiasm, she explained that it was difficult to register for the entrepreneurship classes being offered.
“I am planning to minor in entrepreneurship at [Wake Forest], but I’m finding it kind of hard to get into the class sections because I can’t declare [my minor] yet, and I feel like a lot of upperclassmen have [registration] priority,” Shah said.
However, she expressed her hopes for the donation and how it will impact the overall entrepreneurship student experience.
“I just hope that the donation goes to parts of the department that are visible to students, like even more class sections would be really nice, and of course more professors,” Shah said. “Maybe we could have some off-campus opportunities, because I know downtown there is a company called Winston Starts that helps fuel entrepreneurs who have startups, which I think is really cool. If [Wake Forest] did a collaboration with Winston Starts that could be really great for students.”