TrepCon Entrepreneurship Week

Fordham's fourth annual Entrepreneurship Conference from November 14 to 17 at the Rose Hill campus brought in a great variety of distinguished entrepreneurs. This year, it coincided with the new entrepreneurship program, which began this Fall semester. The Director of the Entrepreneurship program, Dr. Christine Janssen-Selvadurai, worked hard to bring new and enlightening speakers to this years conference. Event themes include "Creating Value for Others" with speakers from Echoing Green, Ashoka, and Peace Dividend Trust, "Determining a Growth Strategy That's Right for You," "How Failure Makes You Smarter" with speakers from First Round Capital, Chop't, and Time Millionaire, "How Storytelling Creates Engagement Using Social Media," "What Do Investors Look For?" with speakers from Silicon Valley Bank Accelerator and GoldenSeeds, and "The Secrets of the Success." These events gave Fordham students first-hand advice and information through forward-thinking discussions. The interesting week ended with an engaging speaker from Rich Grad followed by a networking mixer.

Starting in Fall 2011, the new entrepreneurship program was launched. Courses offered by this program include Small Business Finance, Exploring Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Resilience, Executing Entrepreneurial Vision, and Personal Branding and Leadership. These courses are taught by visionary entrepreneurs who incorporate their own experiences into their classes. In addition, there is a student club, called the Entrepreneurship Society. It emphasizes creating networks, sharing new ideas, and collaboratively making new ventures. These students work together to organize events and projects in hopes to build them into businesses. The creation of the program demonstrates Fordham's shift into new business areas. It provides students with a wonderful opportunity to learn about creating their own businesses while interacting with experienced entrepreneurs. Gabelli students are currently able to concentrate in entrepreneurship along with their major area of study.