McGuire Team Presented on Global Entrepreneurship Education at GECE2016

Several members of the McGuire Center for Entrepreneurship team attended the 2016 Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers (GCEC) Sept. 29-Oct. 1, 2016. The GCEC is the premier academic organization addressing the emerging topics of importance to the nation’s university-based centers for entrepreneurship. It has become the vehicle by which the top, established entrepreneurship centers, as well as emerging centers, can work together to share best practices, develop programs and initiatives, and collaborate and assist each other in advancing, strengthening, and celebrating the role of universities in teaching the entrepreneurs of tomorrow.

"The GCEC conference reinforced that the focus on innovation and entrepreneurship has moved beyond the business school and now permeates all areas of a university," said McGuire Center Lecturer Rick Yngve, who attended the event. "The question for entrepreneurship educators is how to ensure students across campus acquire high quality learning outcomes that traditionally had been obtained through immersive, year-long programs. Entrepreneurship centers have to think of new audiences and delivery models to meet demand." 

Carlos J. Alsua, McGuire Center for Entrepreneurship Academic Director and Senior Lecturer, International Management and Global Entrepreneurship; Jim Jindrick, McGuire Entrepreneurship Program Mentor in Residence; Mark Peterson, Entrepreneurship and Innovation Lecturer; and Anne Stringfellow, Senior Lecturer of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, also presented on a panel at a breakout session Friday, Sept. 30, called "It’s Not Such a Small World After All: Exploring Global Collaborations and Entrepreneurship Education." On this panel, nine speakers from for entrepreneurship centers based in North America shared their experiences working with global partners at universities in the Caribbean, South America, Africa, Europe and Asia, discussing how these partnerships provide opportunities to improve student cross-cultural competence and sharing best practices to foster opportunities for collaboration.

"For me, the conference underlined the importance of 'getting out of the building,' said Dr. Stringfellow. "We mentor our students on the importance of exposing themselves to new ideas; yet we rarely take the time to practice what we preach. The GCEC conference was an opportunity to step outside our own Center and to take a look  at what our peers are doing."

The GCEC, which is hosted by a different university each year, currently has a membership of more than 225 university-based entrepreneurship centers. The McGuire Center hosted the 2008 GCEC and remains the only two-time winner of the GCEC Center of Entrepreneurial Leadership award. Additionally, the McGuire Center won the NASDAQ Center of Entrepreneurial Excellence award in 2008, and former McGuire Center Director Dr. Gary D. Libecap won the Inaugural Legacy Award “For pioneering and directing a university entrepreneurship center that created a legacy impact on the field of entrepreneurship” in 2012. 

"At GCEC, our team was excited to see that the McGuire Center continues to be seen as a leader of entrepreneurial education," Yngve said. "The yearlong McGuire Entrepreneurship Program is a pillar, and our newer ENTR 485 senior capstone for Eller business students is seen as a unique offering by peer institutions."