Entrepreneurial opportunities abound for U. of Utah students
The Multi-Disciplinary Entrepreneurship Certificate Program at the University of Utah has recently become known on campus as the one-stop-shop for student entrepreneurs. Consisting of 4 Entrepreneurship classes (ENTP 1010, ENTP 1020, ENTP 2010, ENTP 2020), this undergraduate certificate program is designed for students from all majors who have interest in working on something they can get passionate about.
An associated class, ENTP 1020, focuses on providing real-world startup experience to students through group collaboration and a unique curriculum. Students in this class are given group projects of developing, refining, researching, prototyping, and hopefully, one day, launching their business models. The main difference though, is the course’s “StartUp Bootcamp”, which concludes the ENTP 1020 course. The Bootcamp, designed with 5 consecutive days of meeting with professionals and iterating on their ideas allows students to learn while having the opportunity to validate and further build their ideas among specific industries.
On July 6, 2015, the Entrepreneurship 1020 class began their Bootcamp as the following companies: Simple Sustenance (healthy eating app), Junior PC (educational electronics for children), 7th Sense (trauma analysis technology), Click-n-call (wearable safety button), and Green Change (Social Recycling App). During the BootCamp, the above-listed student companies met with Espiritu Design, OC Tanner, Key Bank, Tanner Labs, Salt Lake Acting Company, as well as Librarians in the Marriott Library for guidance. While at Key Bank, the companies pitched to its President, Terry Grant and his corporate lending team for feedback on their ventures – it was truly quite the amazing experience for these young entrepreneurs!
In conjunction with Church and State, two of the best-suited student teams (Simple Sustenance and Green Change) were awarded 6 months of free community working space along with many other resources at Church and State. The Entrepreneurship Certificate Program looks forward to continuing to work Church and State to develop a robust entrepreneurial eco-system.
About the Entrepreneurship Certificate Program:
Founded at the University of Utah in Spring 2004, the Entrepreneurship Certificate Program is a hands-on learning experience for entrepreneurs. For additional information, please visit http://www.uentp.com.
About Church and State:
Housed in a historic 21,000 square-foot renovated church in downtown Salt Lake City, Church & State is a nonprofit community-managed entrepreneurship center that offers resources to entrepreneurs to help them grow sustainable businesses. These resources include mentorship, a curated speaker series, training workshops, resource partners and spaces that are thoughtfully-designed to foster creativity, collaboration and collisions among entrepreneurs.
Our mission is to elevate entrepreneurship in Utah through alignment of public and private resources, and in doing so, inspire community innovation, stimulate economic growth, attract out-of-state businesses and create new jobs.