Program sparks opportunity by bringing alumni together
Program sparks opportunity by bringing alumni together
By Chuck Schilke, JD '88
Entrepreneurship@Cornell (E@C), Cornell's university-wide entrepreneurship program, is distinctive in that it serves both as an on-campus student academic program and a nationwide venue for alumni involvement. Founded in 1992, E@C is governed by the nine deans of the participating colleges, involves more than sixty faculty and staff affiliates, and receives input and support from a forty-member advisory council. In 2001, E@C created the Cornell Entrepreneur Network (CEN; cen.cornell.edu), its alumni affiliate, which produces more than fifty entrepreneurship events each year in eight cities around the country. Cornell Silicon Valley (CSV; csv.cornell. edu) is a similar program that focuses on the technology sector in Northern California. More than 7,000 students enrolled in E@C-affiliated courses during the 2006-07 academic year, and several thousand alumni attended regional CEN and CSV programs.
E@C makes a special contribution to fostering relationships among the alumni of all participating schools. At Cornell any person can study any subject, so the range of knowledge and skills among Big Red alumni is great. Thus, much of the University's long-term potential value to alumni lies in its capacity to introduce alums to others in complementary fields outside their on-campus majors, who can be valuable in later life and career, and who can provide a kind of personal continuing education. E@C does exactly this, uniting
Cornell alums from different undergraduate colleges and with graduate and professional alumni. This enriches the experience of undergraduate alumni, and brings graduate and professional alumni into the central Cornell alumni community—allowing the full panoply of technology, management, marketing, financial, legal, policy, and other skills and contacts to combine in new ways to address cutting-edge entrepreneurial challenges. In the networking sessions before and after the world-class entrepreneurial speakers at regional CEN events, the diversity of skills among alums, and the resulting exchange of information, produces conversations of the highest creative pitch.
E@C has recently created a splendid new Big Red tradition, the Entrepreneurship@Cornell Celebration, which intensifies the exchange of Big Red entrepreneurial ideas. Held in Ithaca in early April, with some 200 alumni attending in 2007, the celebration showcases the entrepreneurial imagination of Cornellians at its best. The alumni Entrepreneur of the Year gives an address and is recognized at a banquet at the Statler, where top student entrepreneurs are also honored. Panels feature alums from technology, energy and environment, health care, hospitality, real estate, venture capital, private equity, hedge funds, and more. Current Cornell students join alumni for the programs, exhibit their own entrepreneurial projects, and even have the opportunity to approach alums about funding their startups or working for a company that needs smart young talent.
Several academic programs are even starting to use the Entrepreneurship@ Cornell Celebration as a recruitment tool for prospective students, inviting them to attend the event and see firsthand the vitality of Cornell's student and alumni network. By attracting students from all over the world, from a range of social and economic backgrounds, and with a wide spectrum of intellectual and professional interests, the University ensures that students with creative entrepreneurial ideas readily encounter each other on campus. Increasingly E@C is sparking a "virtuous cycle": it helps Cornell attract entrepreneurial applicants, provides them with the finest education, and introduces them to fellow alumni from across the University after graduation.
What could be a better twenty-first-century update of the land-grant mission? Were he alive today, that greatest of tinkerers, Ezra Cornell, would doubtless cast a craggy smile upon the Entrepreneurship@Cornell Program—and walk off with the Entrepreneur of the Year Award.
Rhodes Alumni Service Award Winners Honored
During Homecoming Weekend, six devoted Cornell-ians were honored as recipients of the 2007 Frank H. T. Rhodes Exemplary Alumni Service Award. Named in honor of Cornell's ninth president, this prestigious award recognizes alumni who have demonstrated extraordinary service to their alma mater through long-term volunteer activities within the broad spectrum of Cornell's alumni organizations. It is the highest honor bestowed upon alumni for service to the University.
Honorees are selected from candidates proposed by fellow Cornellians. Typically, they have been involved with alumni activities since graduation, and this year's recipients are no exception. Rolf Frantz '66, ME '67, president of the Cornell Alumni Federation, said of the 2007 honorees, "It's inspiring to read about the many and varied commitments that Rhodes Award recipients have made to Cornell. I'm also impressed by their modesty; they did what they did out of love for our alma mater, not because they were looking for any special recognition."
The 2007 awardees are: Michael Chiu '66 (Los Altos, California), Glenn Dallas '58 (Sarasota, Florida), Robert Goldfarb '64 (Farmington, Connecticut), Barbara Hirsch Kaplan '59 (Gladwyne, Pennsylvania), Grace Richardson, MS '62 (New York City), and W. Barlow Ware '47 (Ithaca).