Don’t know a business venture from a hole in your right sock? Unsure of how to communicate all those ideas you have been been working on since you were a small child? Well, if you are merely interested in honing your entrepreneurial skills and advancing your business endeavors, then the recently developed Entrepreneur Club is the place for you.
The club was founded in the fall of 2005 by Kauffman Entrepreneurial Year scholar Darcey Jacobs, senior Erik Rainey and sophomore Eric Wisch. Although rather small and unknown to most of the UR community, this burgeoning club hopes to greatly expand and inform many business-interested UR students.
Wisch tried to get the club afoot early last year, but there was a lack of support. However, Rainey came in and, after gaining an interest in the KEY program – a Take Five course for aspiring entrepreneurs – made the idea a reality. Although the club only has about twenty active members and weekly officer, instead of general interest meetings, it is SA recognized.
Despite being a new club, the members are working hard to push their goals. They “aim to give students opportunities, tools and necessary resources to work towards the development and realization of their ideas,” Public Relations Officer Mlen-Too Wesley said.
Even more impressive is the fact that the club is not just a program that teaches its members how to make a lot of money and run a business. It focuses on how “to extend to others, such as social, political, and academic value and [how] it relates to a multitude of practices,” Wesley emphasized. Rather than just instructing young adults how to quickly climb to the top of the corporate ladder, the club is interested in making students valuable members of society.
In order to express their ideas to the UR campus, the club is developing a “network of entrepreneurs on and off campus between all members of the university community,” Wesley said. This way, the club can serve both the greater Rochester area and UR students while still furthering their mission.
There are currently two professors at Simon who have signed on to mentor the participants of the Entrepreneur Club. With the help of professional entrepreneurs and business connoisseurs, students will greatly benefit and learn valuable skills for free.
Permutt can be reached at
spermutt@campustimes.org.
