The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Executive Summary – Kauffman Campuses Proposal
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is pleased to submit the following proposal for establishment of the Carolina Entrepreneurial Initiative. The Carolina Entrepreneurial Initiative will make entrepreneurship a life-changing experience for an expansive array of undergraduate and graduate students and faculty through programs that foster a campus-wide entrepreneurial climate, engender entrepreneurial skills and actions, and push the boundaries of knowledge of entrepreneurship.
UNC-Chapel Hill is not new to entrepreneurship, having spawned many new ventures, trained hundreds of nationally prominent entrepreneurs, and been a catalyst for the Research Triangle Park, one of the nation’s most successful public/private start-ups.We will create new programs and integrate and leverage them with existing programs and assets to take entrepreneurial education at UNC-Chapel Hill to a significantly new level.Through the Carolina Entrepreneurial Initiative, we will:
- Inspire students to become entrepreneurs
- Teach them how to become entrepreneurs
- Connect them with alumni mentors, academic experts, and private industry
- Create new ventures, new knowledge, new attitudes
Our strategy is to employ a life-course programmatic approach beginning with pre-college student recruitment, proceeding through an extensive set of on-campus entrepreneurial initiatives, and continuing with entrepreneurially-directed lifelong learning, connectivity, and support. Our initiative will not only focus on creating traditional business entrepreneurs, but also social, civic, and academic entrepreneurs.
Our financial plan for the program will highly leverage the investment from the Kauffman Foundation and insure long-term sustainability of the Carolina Entrepreneurial Initiative. An important component of our financial plan will be an Innovations Fund that will keep the Initiative fresh and agile in all focus arenas. Evaluation metrics for each program and for the overall Initiative will insure that desired outcomes are being achieved.The Carolina Entrepreneurial Initiative will be housed in UNC-Chapel Hill’s Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise, a campus hub and outreach arm for collaboration among academia, government, business, and civil society.The effort will be led by the Institute’s Director, Dr. John Kasarda, Kenan Distinguished Professor of Management and Sociology, who chaired the University’s Sociology Department from 1980 to 1990.
