On March 7th the Universities at Shady Grove (USG) hosted “Skilled for Success: Building an Entrepreneurial Mindset.” The event, part of USG’s Beyond the Degree Collaborative Conversation Series, focused on how higher education and business communities can work together to foster and advance entrepreneurship. More than 200 attendees, including 150 students and more than 30 entrepreneurs participated in focused networking activity, heard a panel of successful business leaders from across our region discuss the importance of entrepreneurship and the economy and listened to a conversation with Timothy Chi, CEO of Wedding Wire on building an entrepreneurial mindset. The panel discussion and conversation with Timothy Chi were expertly moderated by USG's Board of Advisors Vice-Chair, Steve Hull. Please check out Dr. Edelstein’s reflection on this evening of Entrepreneurship at USG on the Discover USG blog.
USG will support entrepreneurs through the new Biomedical Sciences and Engineering (BSE) Education Facility, which is slated to open on 2019. This new building will play a central role in our continued building of an entrepreneurial eco system here at USG, and in Montgomery County. It will feature maker space with state-of-the-art resources to foster innovation and entrepreneurship, flexible workspace for inter-disciplinary student projects, and a unique meeting space for students, faculty, and business to work together on projects.
At USG, we realize the immense opportunity we have for our students and for our region to grow entrepreneurial programs, while increasing access, awareness, and opportunities for entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs-to-be in our region. This is a special time to be involved with the future of USG, there are two ways to get involved:
- For business owners and entrepreneurs in the region interested in further building this ecosystem with us, we suggest that you consider visiting USG to engage with our students, explore how they can help solve problems faced by your organization or hire one or more of these talented and career-ready students. You can work with the USG Career and Internships Services Center to build a custom classroom-to-career pipeline to power your future workforce, or join our Entrepreneurship Advisory Group, which will support USG on building its framework to help increase access, awareness, and opportunities for entrepreneurs in the region.
- And for students enrolled in a program at USG or planning to take classes here in the future, we suggest you engage with the USG Career and Internship Services Center, where you can find out about internship and job opportunities in your field. We also invite you to join our Entrepreneurship Advisory Group to play a part in building the future of the region.
As Peter Drucker once said, “the best way to predict the future is to create it.” As we continue building an entrepreneurial ecosystem for our region, including USG’s own entrepreneurship initiatives, we invite you to get involved.
For more information, or to get involved in USG’s entrepreneurship activities, please email John Zuknick at jzuknick@umd.edu.
Click here for photographs from the event.
Click here for a podcast interview with Timothy Chi, CEO of Wedding Wire.