91制片厂

Three 91制片厂 students will get a jump on the biggest issue facing many college graduates today even before they don their caps and gowns. A new program out of 91制片厂's Peter T. Paul Entrepreneurship Center () offers undergraduates the chance to win money to help pay student loans just for being curious.

The soon-to-be launched program seeks to engage students from any major in activities related to ideas, innovation, and entrepreneurship as a way to expand their critical thinking and problem solving skills. For every activity students participate in, they will receive a stamp in their 鈥減assport.鈥� The student with the most stamps by May 8 will receive $8,000 toward their student loan debt.

The student with the most stamps by May 8 will receive $8,000 toward their student loan debt.

The remaining qualifying students (those with the minimum amount of stamps, or credits) will be eligible for a $3,500 cash reward. A second drawing, also for $3,500, will be held for undergraduates who are first-generation college students.

Qualifying activities include, among others, attending speaker events, boot camps, and the i2 Passport kickoff event Feb. 12, utilizing the ECenter and Makerspace, entering the , and majoring or minoring in entrepreneurship.听

Ian Grant, director of the ECenter, says they are looking beyond those students who would already be inclined to explore this path. 鈥淲e want the artists, the French majors, the engineers, the business students, the health and nursing majors. Seeing problems and finding solutions is an essential tool that should be in every student鈥檚 toolbox,鈥� Grant says.

While the cash prizes are enticing, the real goal, Grant says, is to expose students to situations that help them see problems and learn to solve them.

鈥淚f we鈥檙e looking for students to leave 91制片厂 with one thing in their toolbox, that鈥檚 it,鈥� Grant says.听 鈥淲hether it鈥檚 a student at the horse barns who is tired of the horseshoe coming off in the mud and has figured out a way to solve the problem or someone going to work at a startup company, in attending these kinds of activities, somewhere along the way, a light bulb might go off and they鈥檒l think, 鈥渉ey, maybe I鈥檝e got a solution to that problem.鈥欌��

Students must in i2 Passport.

Funding for the pilot program comes from alumnus Harry Patten 鈥�58, who donated $50,000 to the ECenter to start i2 Passport as well as a new internship program. The will place four students with startup companies for 10 weeks this summer. Interns will earn $4,500.

The also provided support for i2 Passport.

听