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Program History and Goals |
In December 2003, Wake Forest University was selected as one of only eight universities nation-wide to receive a matching grant ($2.16 million) from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation to fund cross campus entrepreneurship education programs.
The Office of Entrepreneurship and Liberal Arts was established in July 2004 to coordinate and oversee the range of related entrepreneurship activities across the various disciplines of the University.
We seek to make entrepreneurship an integral and enduring part of the liberal arts college experience. We believe that the Wake Forest philosophy of liberal arts and the nature of entrepreneurship can be mutually reinforcing concepts. Our University Statement of Purpose defines liberal arts as:
“…education in the fundamental fields of human knowledge and achievement, as distinguished from education that is technical or narrowly vocational. It seeks to encourage habits of mind that ask 'why,' that evaluate evidence, that are open to new ideas, that attempt to understand and appreciate the perspectives of others, that accept complexity and grapple with it, that admit error, and that pursue truth.”
We believe that entrepreneurship is consistent with the habits of mind that are part of the liberal arts philosophy. To be successful, entrepreneurs must also be open to new ideas, able to evaluate evidence, take into account diverse perspectives, grapple with complexity, admit error, and pursue truth.
To build a sustainable culture of entrepreneurship we have taken the following actions:
- Elevated the effort to a visible university-level office;
- Launched a multi-year communication program to create greater awareness and understanding of entrepreneurship within the liberal arts community;
- Created entrepreneurial champions among faculty through education, exposure and incentives;
- Added courses in entrepreneurship and creativity throughout the curriculum;
- Provided cross-disciplinary and experiential learning opportunities related to entrepreneurship;
- Added new faculty positions to provide enhanced teaching resources for entrepreneurship curriculum initiatives;
- Provided enhanced opportunities for students to become involved in social entrepreneurship, consistent with the University's Pro Humanitate motto; and
- Established a University Center for Entrepreneurship to support entrepreneurial efforts outside the normal curriculum.
Entrepreneurship flows naturally out of what Wake Forest is, and that is an atmosphere where students have long been encouraged to pursue their own thoughts and dreams and creativity. And that is a natural bed for entrepreneurship.”
-President Nathan Hatch
The Office of Entrepreneurship and Liberal Arts draws on the strengths and resources of the University's College of Arts and Sciences, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Calloway School of Business and Accountancy, Babcock Graduate School of Management, the School of Medicine, and Winston-Salem's Piedmont Triad Research Park.
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