BY SCOTT DIETRICH
Are you a student with a budding business dream or idea? Can you see the idea so clearly in your mind, yet don’t know where to even begin to put it into action. If this is the case then you should pay a visit to the Centre for Entrepreneurship, located beside the Bookstore at the Doon campus.
The centre opened its doors for the first time this year, and so far a number of students have taken advantage of its resources. Centre staff help you get a firm grasp on all aspects of a business and take you step by step through the process of buying retail space, speaking with a legal team about copyright and patent laws, and setting you up with other departments in the school. It is open to all students, yet many who are close to graduation and looking for the best career move do not take advantage of its resources.
“One goal is to get the students to think entrepreneurially,” said Elisabeth Kolenko, an adviser at the centre. “The time where you graduate from school and you have a job waiting for you is long gone.”
Recently the centre held a competition titled Technical Enabled Social Innovation. It pitted students from different programs against each other, encouraging them to come up with a business plan that connected people in a way never thought of before. Participants took workshops and received advice from entrepreneurs.
The winning team, which consisted of Jill Clark and a few of her friends, came up with the idea for a computer program that helps parents who have children with special needs find suitable programs for their child. Clark said without the centre it would have been hard to navigate the complex process of putting her idea into action.
“I think the one thing for any company that you’re starting from scratch is the amount of roadblocks you will hit along the way is ridiculous. But we definitely worked with the centre through every single one of them.”
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