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Google the keywords “entrepreneurship” and “liberal arts” and you’ll get a series of results commending the emerging intersection of the two words. With higher education institutions linking the two, Lewis & Clark is trying to capitalize on the trend.
On Sept. 26, President Barry Glassner emphasized the importance of an entrepreneurial background within a liberal arts education when he published “Entrepreneurship Education Not Just for Entrepreneurs” in The Huffington Post. In the article, Glassner argued, “it’s important to realize that an education in entrepreneurship has great utility not just for entrepreneurs, but also for employees in more conventional workplaces, too.”
No matter what you’re interested in creating or doing with your life, there is definitely a space for you—or at least that’s the message that the College is trying to send with its Entrepreneurship ab, completed this year. Overlooking the grassy field between BoDine and John R. Howard Hall, students in the eLab pour shots from a Keurig Cappuccino machine, project ideas onto a flat screen TV and scrawl notes on two tables that double as whiteboards.
With a new student-led Entrepreneurship Club complementing the eLab, LC boasts a variety of tools for Pioneers hoping to bring their ideas to life.
“The goal of the club right now is to get a broader interest and involvement with the community as a whole,” E-Club Co-President Julia Meyer (’16) said. “Personally, I’m really interested in making something [where] not just kids who might have been business majors at other schools [become involved], but something where people from all walks of life on campus have something they can be involved with.”
Although the E-Club and E-Lab are separate, both share goals and resources. Any student curious about the lab or interested in completing projects is welcome to use the facilities.
“We want to be something where if you have an idea, we have the space for you to come and figure out [how] someone can work with you,” Meyer said. “We want to show how entrepreneurship doesn’t have to be so boxed in and limited to ‘let’s network.’”
Students like Constantine Pankin (’15), who have been involved with other LC entrepreneurial projects such as the Venture Competition, are excited about the space’s potential to fuel student projects.
“Since its opening, we’ve been there more than at our own houses,” Pankin said. “For the general community, I’m just expecting the entrepreneurship center to grow and [make] the connection to the professional world that a lot of majors don’t fulfill. Now, the physical space brings people together. It makes it more of a home.”
eLab or the E-Club meetings: Thursdays at 4:00 p.m. on the third floor of Howard.
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