What is the Entrepreneurial Fellowship?
The answer depends on whom you ask.
To our current students, it’s a transformational opportunity to solve a problem they see every day—with the support of a team of alumni mentors and $10,000 in seed money.
To past winners, it’s an experience that helped them uncover their strengths, hone their business skills, and show their future employers that they have a passion to make a difference with their work.
To our alumni, parents, and friends of the College, it’s a chance to create the next generation of entrepreneurs—the benefits of which know no bounds.
Watch the video above or on Youtube to hear what a few program participants have to say about it.
All of these descriptions were factors that Bob Allen ’89, P’21, Nick Johnson ’90, and other founders of the Entrepreneurial Fellowship took into consideration when building this program.
“We were looking for a way to both differentiate Gettysburg from other private liberal arts colleges and find ways for current students to connect with alumni in meaningful and lasting ways,” Allen said. “The lure of entrepreneurship fits with the mindset of today’s students, and we are able to connect them with the practical experience they need to get their ideas up and running.”
Since its launch in 2014, it has turned into a platform for alumni to mentor and engage with students, and, when combined with $10,000 in seed money, allowed eight students to kickstart six ventures in the past three years.
“These are lifelong relationships,” said Wei Xiong ’15, the inaugural Entrepreneurial Fellow and founder of Scholar Oasis. He’s still in touch with his mentors—Johnson and Allen—because of how they have helped him navigate the highs and lows of entrepreneurship.
“With this program, you have so many people who want you to succeed,” Xiong said. “That doesn’t just end after the duration of the Fellowship.”
Read more about the business success of this past year’s winners.
Applications are now being accepted for the 2017 Entrepreneurial Fellowship. Interested students can learn more by stopping by a CUB lobby information table (11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 1), attending an information session on campus (Wednesday, Jan. 25 at noon in CUB 260, Monday, Jan. 30 at noon in CUB 230), or by contacting Manny Ruiz in the Center for Career Development at mruiz@gettysburg.edu or 717.337.6616.
