At Penn State University, Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) provides an extensive hands-on experience for students, faculty and the community to explore entrepreneurship and innovative skills.
Frank Koe, associate professor of entrepreneurship engineering at Penn State, attended the 2016 Global Entrepreneurship Congress in Medellín, Colombia, with fellow GEW Penn State partner Heather Fennessey McWhorter, director of the university’s small business development center.
At the Congress, Koe and Fennessey McWhorter had the opportunity to attend sessions and network with other GEW hosts from more than 140 countries. That international connection, Koe said, was one of the reasons he felt the weeklong conference was beneficial.
“Since Global Entrepreneurship [Network] is truly global, with 160 countries here and people from all over the world, it’s very good to see that the global entrepreneurship is bringing these countries together to help people of all stations of life to advance their entrepreneurial pursuits,” he said.
Nearly 4,000 delegates attended the 2016 GEC, including Global Entrepreneurship Week hosts from around the world. Penn State has been a GEW partner since 2009, and featured more than 75 events in 2014, with more than 5,000 students, faculty and community members who participated in activities across the campuses.
“Certainly for the university, it’s good that I can communicate to the students that they have partners after they leave university,” Koe said. “Because I can’t assume that they’re going to start these magnificent businesses simply because they took a course of mine. And I think this organization provides that help and support after they learn the basic tools of entrepreneurship.”
Through activities, students share and create their own ideas – from interactive events, discussion panels, keynote speakers, and competitions. The activities have included in the past a women’s entrepreneurship lunch, an internship potluck, student startup consulting sessions, startup site visits, and a panel on the entrepreneurial mindset and what it means for the future of entrepreneurship.
Global Entrepreneurship Week will be from November 14-20, 2016, and GEW Penn State will begin their celebrations on Nov. 13. Follow GEW Penn State on Twitter with #gewpsu, and online.