Center for Entrepreneurship: Entrepreneur Scholars Program

Entrepreneur Scholars is a competitively selected group of University of Portland undergraduate students from all majors across the campus who create new business ventures, social enterprises, as well as implements innovative products and delivery models for these organizations. This program combines classroom activity, best practices learned from local and international entrepreneurs, applied experience by apprenticeship, and activities designed to develop the mindset and skill set to make new ideas happen in the real world.  Entrepreneur Scholars also includes travel to major business centers around the US and abroad to expose students to new and different ways of doing business, and meet with experts and innovators to validate their own hypotheses and inform their plans for creating and launching a new venture.

Through this nationally prominent program, students develop skills to compete in the global business environment and take the required action to set change and innovation in motion, in their own firm, as early stage start-up, or as part of an innovation group within a larger company or non-profit.  Students interact with some leading entrepreneurs and thought leaders to learn new venture strategies, innovation processes and visionary leadership approaches to plan and execute their own ideas, or those developed in concert with other students in the program. They design, implement, and lead a business project that aims to be the best of its kind in the world.  Entrepreneur Scholars participate actively with guest speakers in the classroom and a year-long series of business workshops held by some of the Northwest's most successful entrepreneurial leaders.

The Entrepreneur Scholars Program has twice received the award for the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (USASBE) Model Specialty Program, as well as numerous citations, awards and grants from major entrepreneurship publications, NASDAQ, and the global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers. 

Undergraduate students may download the Entrepreneur Scholars application, recommendation form and judicial check form, using the links at the left. Please submit a completed application to the Center for Entrepreneurship by December 14, 2012 in order to be considered for the Entrepreneur Scholars Program's class of 2013-2014. Late applications may be considered only under special circumstances.　

To find out more about how you can participate in this program, either as a student or as an entrepreneur mentor, please contact the Center at (503) 943-7769 or ecenter@up.edu.