Entreprenurial opportunities severely lacking

By Staff Editorial     4/19/12 7:00pm

The Thresher would like to congratulate the students who participated in Three Day Startup for holding a successful conference. The program is designed to help students expand their entrepreneurial education. Students who have great ideas but lack resources can apply to participate in the program and have the opportunity to launch their potential business. It is programs such as these that motivate students to achieve a high level of success at the undergraduate level. Unfortunately, there was a deficiency in support for the program this year due to the event's timing. Since it was scheduled between Beer Bike and the Rice Business Plan competition, Three Day Startup had difficulty in receiving a large amount of funding. We commend the program for finding creative means of exploring external connections to fulfill itsfunding requirements.

It is important to not only support programs that strive to achieve a level of success that goes beyond the hedges, but also support the creation of more entrepreneurial and business programs for undergraduates at Rice. Mundane lessons learned day-to-day in a classroom setting cannot compare to the experience and lessons learned from participating in programs such as Three Day Startup. Hands-on experience will help hopeful students learn practical entrepreneurial skills. Rice, as a world-class institution, needs to not only teach students the knowledge to succeed but also the skills to present themselves as strong competitors in the business world. A large portion of young students have the creative and imaginative talent for concocting inventions and ideas. We must capture this creativity while enthusiasm is at its peak.

Furthermore, advertisement for these programs needs to be bolstered. One of the major reasons for a lack of support is that many people simply do not know that the program exists. Other universities such as Stanford University and Harvard University are strongly dedicated to their entrepreneurship labs and conferences. Their success in offering these opportunities to their students is strongly due to support from their sponsors and community. As a result of raising awareness and their immense amount of advertisement, outside entities can easily become aware of the benefits these programs offer and thus give their support to the students' efforts.

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Hosting and participating in these entrepreneurial programs will help the university catch up to the Ivy League. The university, rather than just the student body, should make it a point to actively try to bring opportunities, such as Three Day Startup, to campus. As a science-heavy school, Rice has the potential to put out incredible inventions constantly. An increase in support could make Rice a huge player in terms of universities putting out engineering patents and prototypes.

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