Shifting Focus & Inspiring Change
Nearly all students at the College of William and Mary frequently venture to Richmond Road, and most often, their destination is either the campus-famous Wawa or Chick-fil-A. However, sandwiched between the two prominent eateries lies a resource that many in the College community know little about, despite the immense benefits it offers to its members: the Alan B. Miller Entrepreneurship Center.
RYAN GOODMAN // FLAT HAT MAGAZINE
The Entrepreneurship Center teaches interested students the skills and mindset of an entrepreneur. In this way, the Center provides students with the tools they need to succeed should they ever attempt to found a start-up. Broadly, the Center offers students skills that they can put to work in any life path they choose.
“Innovation ... is such a good supplement to literally any major — it’s not just business,” Sara Curtiss ’24, a student employee of the Center, said. “It’s just about thinking outside the box and being creative and running with an idea.”
Many aspects that the Center emphasizes are universal in nature, allowing any student to benefit from the experience.
“Some of the tenets — opportunity, discovery, grit, failing wisely — all of those I could see applying no matter what career I go into,” Neha Kosaraju ’23, another student employee of the Center, said.
Because of how crucial these skills are to one’s professional and personal life, the Center tries to dispel any myths about it being exclusively for business students or those interested in startups. Instead, the Center is a place for anyone looking to make the world a better place, student employee Amanda Willigerod ’23 explained.
“We really wanted to drive the distinction that we’re not just a place where people come to learn about entrepreneurship, and obviously that’s still one of our main components, but we really wanted to emphasize that our intention is of teaching these skills, so that these students are able to go out into the real world and tackle these modern problems,” Willigerod said.
At the Center, Executive Director Graham Henshaw, along with the student staff, seeks to inspire and help bolster the ideas of any students who step into the Center.
“It’s just a place for you to come in and foster innovative thinking, and we do say, ‘Make your idea more than an idea,’” Curtiss said.
“The Entrepreneurship Center doesn’t only exist to launch startups,” Henshaw added. “That’s a great manifestation, and we love that, but if someone goes on and gets a great job, we also are high-fiving there, because that’s a great outcome as well. And more and more, employers need people with these kinds of skills and ability to think entrepreneurially.”
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The Center hosts two regular public-facing events: alumni speakers and “Rocket Pitch,” a Shark Tank-style presentation of student startup ideas to hone students’ skills and encourages the application of creative thinking to solve some of the world’s biggest problems.
The Center also brings in a wide variety of guest speakers to share their stories and motivate the community to pursue innovative thinking.
“It’s one of my personal favorite events, because you get to come in and hear someone’s story and how successful they’ve become — and they were literally in your shoes, especially [in the case of] alumni. They’re mentioning things about their experience on the William & Mary campus,” Curtiss explained. “They might have even been a history major, or something you wouldn’t expect, and then to see they’ve started multiple ventures since then and they’re extremely successful is just really cool to see and gives students inspiration to have the courage to run with an idea.”
The motivation that the guest speaker events can evoke among attendees should not be understated, as many students who are involved with the Center have a plethora of good — and potentially profitable — ideas but are stopped by a lack of confidence. Hearing firsthand about these successes is often the impetus students need.
“Seeing people who are successful and making changes all around the world, I think just provides students with whatever resources they need to make their vision come to life,” Kosaraju said. “We want people to be as ambitious as they want to be.”
“It’s so much fun, and it’s really thrilling just to be on the spot and have to deal with this Q&A style format, and to only have two minutes to project and make people understand your idea,” said Jack Rizzo ’25, the Center’s Spring 2022 Rocket Pitch champion.
Rocket Pitch is also an interactive experience for the audience.
“It’s fun to also watch people in that position, and also to hear their ideas and just be like ‘I never thought about that, that’s really fascinating,’ and then talking to them afterwards because everyone is really approachable,” Rizzo added.
This semester, the Center has incorporated its new overarching goal — using the skills of entrepreneurship to solve global and large-scale issues — into weekly events with the help of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) as a baseline.
“We’re encouraging students to put on Rocket Pitches that are under the lens of whatever UN SDG we’re focusing on,” said Willigerod. “We’re hoping that [our students] are inspired.”
These aspirations, though, are not a requirement to participate in the Center’s programs, but rather, it’s a recommended outlet for one’s creativity.
“Each semester, we are trying to have a focus, so we do encourage students to use it as an opportunity to direct their goals, but we are always open to any ideas in any industry. It doesn’t have to be related to that goal, because we don’t want to close any doors here. We want to make sure that students are doing what they are interested in and passionate about,” Kosaraju added.
Although this is a relatively new venture for the Center, it is one to which the student team is wholeheartedly dedicated, as each member wants to see the Center involved in the dialogue to solve large-scale issues and have a positive impact on the planet.
“We’re trying to shift our focus to be a little more specialized and a little more worldwide,” Curtiss said. “We’re trying to adopt even more next semester, focusing on sustainable development goals.”
Even though members may not have experience with these specific issues, passion and entrepreneurial skills are often more than enough of a starting point.
“We certainly don’t bring climate adaptation expertise, but we bring the entrepreneurial lens through which to look at those things,” Henshaw said.
Henshaw is very passionate about using the Center and its resources to help solve global issues like climate change.
“These are really big problems that are facing our planet, and we’d all be very fortunate if they were going away any time soon, but they’re not, so I think this also gives us some staying power to say, this versatile tool kit, we’re going to aim it, and aim it at problems that really matter,” Henshaw said.
“It’s been really interesting to see some of the ideas that have come out of it already, just things I don’t think we would have had if we hadn’t driven the focus and our programming in that direction,” Willigerod added.
The Center will not be fixating on a single goal perennially, but rather, plans to rotate through the various UN SDGs in order to keep the program fresh and new.
“That’s the great thing about the EC here — we are always innovating and changing and adapting to whatever the students need,” Kosaraju said.
Regardless of a semester’s particular goal, the Center will always be an integral resource intent on helping all those in the College community who wish to utilize its services.
“We like to describe it as a resource for students, so it’s not necessarily a club or a program you have to be a part of, but it’s really whatever the students need. I like to think of us as support to make their ideas happen,” Kosaraju said. “It’s like a community: whether it’s coaches, networks, alumni, or current students, it’s a community that’s going to support you and help you with whatever you need.”
“They have some really cool events that go on there, so the more you step in, it’s like a feedback loop, you just see more and more things the EC has to offer,” Rizzo said of the Center’s vast array of exceptional programming.
Even if Center members do not participate in all of its programs, just occasionally attending the various events offered can be more than enough inspiration to better one’s own life. “At our young age, it’s kind of hard to think you have an impact that large, but you have to start somewhere,” said Curtiss. “There’s so much more to it that I didn’t realize, and it opened my eyes to what could be possible through innovation.”
“It is our belief and our observation that if you can think and act entrepreneurially, you can make more meaningful, and sometimes, more rapid progress on things you care a lot about,” Henshaw said.
Despite all of its benefits, the Center is still unknown to a significant portion of the College community, a fact that Center members and employees are trying to change.
“I would love for William & Mary to be known for its entrepreneurial thinkers, [for it to be] a school that people seek out and look to attend because they want to leverage those skills,” Willigerod said.
In Curtiss’ eyes, “Taking that next jump, to pick something that you’re passionate and interested in and then making change ... will make the world a better place.”
RYAN GOODMAN // FLAT HAT MAGAZINE