AMES, Iowa -- Twenty-six Iowa State University faculty and staff were recently awarded one-time grants by the ISU Pappajohn Center for Entrepreneurship to fund programs designed to advance entrepreneurship on campus. While the maximum grant was $5,000, nearly $200,000 was awarded through the program -- made possible by funds provided by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation in Kansas City, Mo.
Grant proposals were submitted for new or updated entrepreneurship programs from among faculty and staff at all seven colleges. Each college had at least three of its proposals funded, but no more than five. The awards included 19 faculty development grants and seven college leadership grants.
"We received a number of proposals from across campus and were pleased with the diversity of ideas to teach and nurture entrepreneurs on our campus," said Steve Carter, director of ISU's Pappajohn Center for Entrepreneurship.
An additional $40,000 has also been set aside for two future collaborative faculty projects:
- Developing a repository of entrepreneurship resources that may include video clips of entrepreneurs, biographies of successful entrepreneurs, a speaker's bureau and/or calendar, or case studies.
- Developing a course or course module addressing the topics of creativity and/or opportunity recognition.
Professor of Management Howard Van Auken was awarded a leadership grant for related work with each of those future projects. Van Auken serves as liaison to the faculty leadership teams from the seven different colleges on Iowa State's campus-wide entrepreneurship initiative.
The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation works with partners to encourage entrepreneurship across America and to improve the education of youths. The late entrepreneur and philanthropist established the Kauffman Foundation in the mid-1960s. For more information on the foundation, visit http://www.kauffman.org.
Iowa State University and its Pappajohn Center for Entrepreneurship ranked 24th nationally for students who want to be entrepreneurs according to this year's survey of more than 700 colleges and universities by The Princeton Review and Entrepreneur magazine. Additional information on the ISU Pappajohn Center for Entrepreneurship is available at http://www.isupjcenter.org/.
