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Trinity to Help Student Entrepreneurs Take Creative Ideas to the Marketplace

by Susie P. Gonzalez January 2008

Already considered a leader among liberal arts schools, Trinity University is known for helping students learn to be critical and creative thinkers as well as clear and persuasive communicators. With the launch of the Center for Entrepreneurship in Fall 2007, Trinity has taken the process one step further. Mahbub Uddin, professor and chair of engineering science (who is credited with coming up with the new Trinity program for student entrepreneurs), said, “Now, we will teach them how to take creative ideas into the market.”

The curriculum for 16 students entering Trinity in the 2007-2008 academic year will began with a first-year seminar titled “Creativity and Entrepreneurial Behavior.” They were then split into four entrepreneurial teams called E-teams to develop a product or service that embodies the concept of entrepreneurship using small grants – in the range of $4,000 annually – to foster development. Students eat together, live on an Entrepreneurial themed floor in a residence hall, and will spend the next four years perfecting their ideas, Uddin said. Seed money for the project has been provided by a $31,000 gift from Roger Collins and Francy Rowsey Collins ’79 as part of The Campaign for Trinity University (more about the Capital Campaign below).

The concept of E-Teams is patterned after the national Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance, a model for college entrepreneurial programs. Such programs are growing in number, with more than 300 interdisciplinary entrepreneurships in place at colleges across the country.

Joining Uddin worked to flesh out the details of Trinity’s Center for Entrepreneurial Studies with Dan Walz, professor and chair of business administration; and L. Brooks Hill, professor and chair of speech and drama. Also helping with the vision were professors Richard Butler in economics and Gerald Pitts in computer science, among others.

Uddin said entrepreneurship has many attributes. “It has vision, passion, creativity, communication, persuasion, risk-taking, decision-making,” he said. “These attributes do not belong to only one discipline.” He started by drawing overlapping circles that represent science and technology, business and social sciences, and arts and humanities. When the three circles unite, they set up an area for creative entrepreneurs. The center would like to motivate students to create extraordinary things for ordinary people, Uddin said.

Launched on Sept. 22, 2005, “Dream. Inspire. Achieve. The Campaign for Trinity University”, with a $200 million goal, is the most important and challenging advancement initiative in Trinity’s 136 year history. To date, the Campaign has already raised over $140 million for the University. A majority of the campaign funds will be directed toward scholarship and financial aid, so Trinity can continue to recruit the best and brightest students, regardless of their financial circumstances. In addition, the campaign will support innovative new academic programs, create additional faculty positions, and provide current faculty with opportunities for research and scholarship. Campaign gifts will also finance enhancements to Trinity’s technology infrastructure, laboratories, athletic and recreation programs and facilities, and residence halls. (Visit http://www.trinity.edu/dreaminspireachieve/ for more information about the campaign or contact Kristine Howland at Kristine.Howland@Trinity.edu regarding how you can support the Trinity Center for Entrepreneurial Studies.)