The Lyles Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Fresno State is celebrating National Entrepreneurship Week Feb. 18-21 with free, public events scheduled each day.
The Lyles Center is hosting a series of skills workshops catering to entrepreneurs and startups. Startup workshops include crowd funding, pitching, franchising and resumes.
“Entrepreneurs are risk takers who stimulate the economy through job creation and revenue generation,” said Dr. Eric Liguori, assistant director at the Lyles Center.
Greg Horn, the co-founder and CEO of Gigawatt, will speak at 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 19, at the Leon S. and Pete P. Peters Educational Center in the Student Recreation Center (Woodrow and Shaw avenues).
Horn will share his experience with Gigawatt, a crowd funding platform for colleges focusing specifically on giving projects and social networks and working toward engaging alumni and increasing participation.
An open house featuring students of the Lyles Center’s Student Hatchery program will be 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 20.
The Student Hatchery offers students support and free office space to work on their businesses while attending school.
The EDGE challenge will be held at 11 a.m. Friday, Feb. 21. It involves taking everyday objects and combining them to create a new product. At the end of the challenge each team will present its idea and product to judges for a chance to win a Kindle.
Founded in 2003, the Lyles Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship is a nationally ranked entrepreneurship center that was formed through a partnership between the university and local entrepreneur Dr. William Lyles. A gift from the Lyles Family Foundation funded the facility, which opened in April 2006.
The Lyles Center, under Director Dr. Timothy Stearns, Management professor in the Craig School of Business, has expansive programs aimed at four specific entrepreneurship targets: youth, collegiate, university and community.
Roe Borunda
One of the center’s hatchery students, photographer Roe Borunda, will receive the College Entrepreneur of the Year Award from the Greater Fresno Area Chamber of Commerce next month for her hatchery-assisted business, Roetography.
Borunda is a senior, double major (Art and Mass Communication and Journalism) from Fresno whose company was one of four selected to be recognized at the chamber’s Valley Business Awards Luncheon Mar. 6.
“If it wasn’t for programs like the Lyles Center Student Hatchery and faculty and staff members at Fresno State to help push me in the direction of my dreams, I probably would have never known the sky can be the limit,” Borunda said.
For more information about the center and the celebration, contact Liguori at 559.294.2045 or eliguori@csufresno.edu.
Related links:
