Grant will support entrepreneurship and STEM programming

February 23, 2022 — The entrepreneurship program in FDU’s Silberman College of Business has received a VentureWell Course and Program grant.

VentureWell grants are awarded to college and university faculty across the United States for the development of STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) and entrepreneurship programs and courses.

With support from Silberman Dean Pierre Balthazard, Eun-Jeong Ko, assistant professor of entrepreneurship, and a cross-disciplinary team created a proposal to initiate a new curriculum with a multi-school entrepreneurial center. In action, this center will promote collaboration between students and faculty to form solutions for real-world problems. The grant will help propel student collaboration and innovation under the guidance of their cross-disciplinary faculty.

Through Silberman’s Rothman Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, more students outside of business-oriented majors will be encouraged to partake in courses oriented towards entrepreneurship and collaboration with their peers. These skills can be tested and promoted in the FDUPitch business idea competition — a statewide contest where students make business pitches in a “Shark Tank”-style setting. As students work towards their certification in STEM entrepreneurship, they will receive hands-on experience to patent, test, and commercialize their inventions under the guidance of Rothman and Silberman experts.

The VentureWell grant, in the amount of $22,400, will propel student collaboration and innovation under the guidance of cross-disciplinary faculty. The new interdisciplinary program will provide focused and innovative students with a launchpad for takeoff into their entrepreneurial fields.