Based on the surge in demand for undergraduate programs in entrepreneurship and innovation at the University of Maryland and throughout the country, the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Program is launching in fall 2010 for freshmen and sophomores. By filling a critical gap in the University's entrepreneurship and innovation offerings at the freshmen and sophomore level, the new living-learning program can improve student recruitment, enhance student enrichment, and contribute to the overall quality and rankings of the University of Maryland. For the living component of the program, all students will reside in an exclusive program residence hall for both years. This residential experience has proved invaluable to community building of young entrepreneurs in Hinman CEOs and related programs. The program offices will be central to the residences to encourage frequent mentoring and interactions with these students. A rich set of community-building activities will be developed and managed for program students. Through live companies, courses, seminars, workshops, competitions, and volunteerism, students will be part of a special experiential learning model. While providing entrepreneurship and innovation education and helping teams to start and operate ventures are important, a continuum of hands-on mentoring will be provided to help students not yet engaged in founding and managing start-ups to develop their entrepreneurial skills. The valuable residential experience is complemented with the central offices of program staff. In this way, students can easily visit staff offices to discuss their latest new venture idea or to tackle a tough legal, financial or ethical question. This Honors academic program combines small classes taught by exceptional faculty with the wide range of additional education opportunities offered by a large research institution. The academic component of the program includes four courses totaling 9 credits, with all students enrolling in one course per semester for each of their four semesters in the program. This provides continuity between the students and the program throughout the two-year experience. Each course will be originally developed for an Honors audience in collaboration with the faculty advisory council. The dedicated program director and department faculty and staff are expected to play active roles in instruction, along with talented adjunct faculty. At Mtech, an A. James Clark School of Engineering institute for technology entrepreneurship and innovation, we believe that a firm grasp of the entrepreneurial process and mindset benefits every person engaged in developing new ideas. Our core goal of the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Program is to infuse freshmen and sophomore students with that knowledge and its accompanying skills. Armed with an entrepreneurial mindset, Entrepreneurship and Innovation Program students and alumni can drive economic growth by launching successful ventures and/or joining innovative companies to bring life-changing products and services to market.
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