$50,000 Grant Helps Kettering University Students Rev Up Entrepreneurship

Business Wire, Oct 11, 2007

FLINT, Mich. -- Engineering, science and business management students at Kettering University in Flint are working to fine-tune business ideas, thanks to a $50,000 grant from the Kern Family Foundation (http://www.kffdn.org/) through the Kern Entrepreneurship Education Network (KEEN). This is the second grant Kettering University received for the e-Kettering Initiative through the Kern program.

With innovation in U.S. lacking in terms of new technological developments, Kettering's efforts to help students tap into their entrepreneurship sensibilities and develop business ideas is necessary as the City of Flint and indeed Michigan look for ways to increase business opportunities and create jobs. Currently, the state's unemployment hovers around 7.4 percent.

The institution received a first grant of $50,000 from Kern in 2006 and achieved remarkable success because of this investment. Kettering formed a student run organization called the Kettering Entrepreneur Society (www.kesociety.com), which includes 60 students, as well as faculty, alumni and industry mentors, and works to promote an entrepreneurial culture at Kettering University based on innovation and social values. The group also has hosted approximately six speakers thus far, which have attracted more than 360 attendees. The new grant covers phase II of the project and includes the following goals:

* Development of an undergraduate entrepreneurship minor: this will be an inter-disciplinary minor in entrepreneurship for undergraduates.

* Creation of a pre-college program: this programming would reach under-represented minorities and female students, which would fill Kettering's pipeline with entrepreneurially aware students and help reach under-represented groups in the engineering profession.

* Creation of a graduate course in entrepreneurship that supports Kettering's new engineering-focused MBA.

For more information on the organization, email at info@KESociety.com. For details on the new $50,000 grant or to learn more about entrepreneurship opportunities at Kettering, contact Dr. Massoud Tavakoli at mtavakol@kettering.edu.

Located in Flint, Mich., Kettering University is the home of the country's most modern professional co-op program. Visit: www.kettering.edu