Many of tomorrow’s great business leaders and thinkers start today at Rowan University, and organizations are becoming aware of it.
Rowan’s Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship received the International Council for Small Business (ICSB) Entrepreneurship Center Global Impact Award this summer, a recognition celebrating RCIE’s popular, cross-campus program on the world stage.
Dr. Eric Liguori, the Rohrer Chair of Entrepreneurship and Executive Director of the RCIE, said the Global Impact Award is important as it recognizes Rowan’s commitment to entrepreneurship well beyond the College of Business.
“While the RCIE is physically located in the Business Hall, it supports innovative student thinkers and emerging entrepreneurs from all of Rowan’s locations,” said Liguori.
In fact, Rowan is said to be the first college or university to receive the award the ICSB created this year to bridge the gap between education and practice.
Rowan has long been a supporter of entrepreneurship, but the urge for cross-campus creativity was particularly fueled by President Ali Houshmand, Provost Tony Lowman, RCB Dean Susan Lehrman, and Liguori.
The RCIE runs a number of programs throughout the year to stimulate entrepreneurship in both Rowan and high school students, including the Think Like an Entrepreneur Summer Academy; the Rohrer New Venture Competition, which encourages Rowan students to pursue entrepreneurial ventures and develop high-growth companies; and the Idea Challenge, which attracts individuals and student teams from across the university to come up with new venture ideas to raise thousands of dollars in funding, legal aid, and startup support.
All of this, said Liguori, made the RCIE a strong candidate for the Global Impact Award.
“RCIE won this award for the breadth, depth and scope of its programs,” he said.
In particular, the Think Like an Entrepreneur High School program, which is now offered virtually, impressed ICSB officials because it encourages entrepreneurship at a young age and its reach is literally global.
“Think Like an Entrepreneur brings together disadvantaged and under-represented students from around the country and around the world to develop entrepreneurial solutions for the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals,” he said. “RCIE’s on-campus curriculum extends well beyond the business school and supports aspiring entrepreneurs in the arts, engineering, science, math, music, and more.”
This is the second award that Rowan has received from the ICSB. In 2019, Rowan’s academic entrepreneurship program was recognized as one of three universities worldwide with the ICSB’s Entrepreneurship Education Excellence Award, leading to Rowan’s appointment as the official ICSB Knowledge Hub in 2020, Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship and AACSB International.
