Growing Entrepreneurial Thinking on a College Campus

If a university wants to produce students who have the ability to think like an entrepreneur and solve big problems in the world, they could take a three tiered approach to starting the fire:

Sparks

This is the top of the funnel and includes all the events, classes, and interest groups that may cause a student to scratch her head and say, "I think I want to get more involved in entrepreneurship."  A campus probably can't have too many of these though they must balance these with the next two tiers.


The Fan
Internships, summer programs, and intensive projects with local companies is the next step students can take when they want to get more engaged.  The stage is crucial to help the student get a better sense of problems in the world.  Too often college students are only exposed to campus problems that may not be big enough.




Gasoline
OK.  Now you are ready to really go for it and sacrafice social time, showers, and ut oh....possibly a B in a class.  One way I've seen this done is through residential entrepreneurship.  I've spent every Saturday afternoon the past few months at InCube on the campus of Duke University.  It's been great and I'm now a huge advocate of very driven students living together and committed to launching a venture.  They are the real deal and I'm excited to see the results.