Spirit of Enterprise Center
The Spirit of Enterprise Center
Celebrating Ethics, Energy and Excellence in Entrepreneurship™
“Changing Lives Through Education” is more than a catch phrase, it is the way we conduct ourselves at the W. P. Carey School of Business. As we aspire to burnish our reputation as a “top of mind” business school, one of the key initiatives that differentiates the school and its graduates is Entrepreneurship.
The mission of the Spirit of Enterprise Center (“Spirit”) is to be the touchstone for all aspects of Entrepreneurship that affect our constituents (sponsors, volunteers, nominees, award recipients, family businesses, students, faculty and alumni). We have determined that the highest and best use of our skill set is to be the first place our constituents think of to connect to the appropriate resource…and to facilitate that connection. Here are some important representations of Spirit’s impact:
∞ Assisting hundreds of businesses each year by providing them guidance and connections to key resources. A key initiative by which this is accomplished is our SMART program (Spirit Mentoring, Advisory & Resource Team).
∞ Linking teams of W. P. Carey Students with businesses to serve as class projects, case studies, and other learning objectives that result in value-added services for the business. This initiative, known as STEP (Student Teams for Entrepreneurship Projects), in just its first year has assisted 15 companies and has received very high marks from students and companies alike.
∞ Educating entrepreneurs and students through two important new initiatives:
Our Food for Thought™ seminar series and our Spirit of Entrepreneurship Conference
∞ Supporting an academic concentration or emphasis in Entrepreneurship that enables undergraduate and graduate students to understand the nuts and bolts of entrepreneurship so that they might chart their own path to making a difference
∞ Bringing entrepreneurial business leaders into the classroom to expose students to the mindset, inspiration, and passion of entrepreneurs
∞ The culmination of these activities is the annual Spirit of Enterprise Awards. This event, entering its 13th year, brings together nearly 1,000 entrepreneurial - minded individuals each year to showcase leading local and regional companies that best exhibit the cornerstone attributes of Spirit: Ethics, Energy and Excellence in Entrepreneurship.
Please take a closer look and consider aligning yourself and your company with the Spirit of Enterprise Center. It is a terrific community of individuals that share a common belief in two of the highest forms of accomplishment…building something from nothing and giving back to the community. Spirit is 100% self-supporting and we rely solely on the generosity of our sponsors to support our programs and our staffing.
