UW-Madison builds new entrepreneurship learning community

UW-Madison will launch a new living and learning community next fall for students interested in entrepreneurship.

Located within Sellery Hall with space for up to 65 students, the initiative aims to make entrepreneurship more readily accessible to newly admitted students with wide-ranging academic interests.

"Wisconsin has a long tradition of fusing the academic and residential aspects of student life together to help make the university a more welcoming place for undergraduates who desire faculty interaction," says Anne Miner, Ford Motor Company Distinguished Professor of Management and Human Resources and director of the cross-campus Initiative for Studies in Technology Entrepreneurship.

Miner will be the leader for the new community. As a professor, she works one-on-one with students to help them grasp key skills that are valuable in both start-up situations and in daily life.

As part of the experience, students will cultivate their creativity and transform innovative ideas into action through coursework, field trips and brainstorms in the residence. Faculty and community guests will share with residents what it takes to be entrepreneurial in career development, not just the mechanics of starting a business.

Key to the success of the community will be the diversity of the residents, Miner says. The community welcomes students with interests in the arts, engineering, business, the humanities and other disciplines. Faculty from the life sciences, education, and agricultural and applied economics among other disciplines are now piloting new class material that will anchor the program in the fall.

At a time when students increasingly need to be creative, resourceful and imaginative to flourish academically, build their careers, or become successful entrepreneurs, this community will play a key role in developing their knowledge and skills, she says.

This initiative is made possible in part by a recent grant of $5 million from the Kauffman Foundation to spread entrepreneurship beyond the borders of the business school. For more information on the effort, please visit http://www.housing.wisc.edu/erlc.