 |
Entrepreneurship at Olin
Entrepreneurship at the Olin Business School began with the inauguration of
the Olin Cup Competition upon the dedication of the John M. Olin Business School on October 14, 1988. The Competition was created to give business students an opportunity to present and defend their positions on a topic of fundamental importance to American business. Students developed original ideas on a topic central to business activity while honing their analytical and presentation skills. After researching and analyzing an assigned topic, students presented their findings to a panel of distinguished judges that then selected the Olin Cup winner.
Beginning in 1992, the Olin Cup became a competition among student groups to discover and present opportunities for American business. While student groups were previously required to explore a specific topic, the adoption of the theme,
"Opportunities for American Business," granted students more freedom in
their presentations. In 1992 and continuing through 1996, student teams presented on a variety of business opportunities, generating practical, feasible ideas.
In 1997, the Olin Cup took on a new dimension as the competition joined with the Olin School's newly designed entrepreneurship program known as the Hatchery. The Hatchery linked students with outside entrepreneurs who had promising ideas but who lacked capital, business experience, or both. By working with entrepreneurs to
develop business plans or by preparing plans for their own ideas, students were able to gain firsthand entrepreneurship experience. At the conclusion of the Hatchery course, students presented their plans to a panel of business experts. The Olin Cup was awarded to those BSBA and MBA teams that best exemplified
entrepreneurial spirit, strategic business thinking, and high quality deliverables.
In 2001, funded in part by the generous contributions of the Skandalaris family, The Skandalaris Entrepreneurship Program was created as Olin embarked on a major
expansion of entrepreneurship education. In 2003, Washington University was challenged by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation to create a new model for entrepreneurial education that followed a multidiscipline, cross-campus theme
to involve a diverse population of students and faculty. Kauffman invited Washington University to compete with a number of other selected schools for funding of innovative programs. Under the guidance of Chancellor Wrighton and
the School Deans, Washington University was selected as one of eight schools that were awarded a combined $25 million over five years to create these new models.
In 2004, the implementation was started. The Skandalaris family provided additional support to establish the Skandalaris Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, a campus-wide operation reporting to the Chancellor.
While the Hatchery remains a centerpiece of the entrepreneurship curriculum at the Olin School, the advent of the campus-wide Skandalaris Center has greatly
expanded entrepreneurial offerings for all Washington University students, with opportunities for a wide range of academic and experiential learning.
In addition to the support provided by the Skandalaris family and the Kauffman Foundation, community sponsors for the Skandalaris Center include:
|
