by Addie Aro
How do you teach innovation? How do you inspire and motivate others to be creative? The Baylor Entrepreneurship Program enhanced its efforts by creating an exciting new learning opportunity for students with the Entrepreneurship Living -Learning Center (ENT-LLC) on campus.
The ENT-LLC, equipped with roughly over 70 students, debuts this fall at the North Village residential community. The group is composed of students who have chosen to live on a single floor and participate in activities centered on entrepreneurship. The women will be housed on the third floor of Texana and the men will be on the third floor in University.
The ENT-LLC is open to students of all classifications and all majors who are interested in entrepreneurial thinking. Freshman accepted into the center may choose to remain residents throughout their time at Baylor. With the program open to all majors, students will have the opportunity to explore different angles of business and creatively solve problems, while utilizing entrepreneurial skills in a collaborative environment.
“What is also unique about this program is that several students were in the Entrepreneurship and Creative Leadership Engaged Learning group, and many of those students have transitioned over to this program,” said Mary Abrahams, manager of the ENT-LLC. Abrahams will also be teaching the cohort class that will place emphasis on leadership, change-management and planning. All students will be required to participate in the course during their first year.
Throughout the school year, students will participate in group activities and hear from guest speakers. “Our first speaker is a gentleman from the Netherlands, who teaches innovation to managers of a 630 million euro company,” said Abrahams. “Our goal is to be very innovative in the way we approach the LLC.”
Abrahams also hopes that through the program students can learn lessons applicable to life outside the classroom. “Many students change their majors two or three times during their college career, and in the cohort class students will have to write down their goals and plans. We are giving them the opportunity to use the planning process, not only to plan business concepts but to plan life goals.”
Baylor Business Review, Fall 2009