I'm Amelia Marckworth, acting director of the
Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center at Seattle
University's Albers School of Business and
Economics. The Mission of the Innovation and
Entrepreneurship Center is to accelerate
entrepreneurial leaders for the common good. We do
this through a suite of entrepreneurial
competitions, hands-on experiential learning
opportunities. connections, and resources to our leaders in the community.
These programs are allowing you to engage
with people in the business world that you might not be
able to interact with otherwise. And even if you do get
the chance to jump into the business world with
IEC you don't have to wait until graduation. You
can be a freshman and jump right in. And there's
realistically no wrong answers with the IEC. And I think
that's one of the benefits of being a student.
Everything you do you learn and with the IEC, it
just takes it to the next level. The IEC is a great support
system in terms of providing you with team coaches, industry
professionals, and all these people
from the most happening fields in Seattle and in
the country as well. Those connections are one part, the
conversations are one part, the experiences a part of
it, and then the benefits that you gain from it.
And most of them, the competitions have prizes in
terms of cash or stuff that you could add to your LinkedIn or resume,
which is a career builder for you.
I graduated a couple years ago and so I wasn't aware
of the IEC program. But I think since, you know it's
obviously opened up a lot of doors for us like with the
Jones and the Idea Challenge, those are both things
that we just didn't even anticipate being involved in. I think that
the program in general is really great for like
making connections with other alums and like
resources at the university. The way the IEC is
set up is that it solves problems every day. The process
from start to finish is exciting, it's
memorable every single time. They are great mentors and they
have access to a lot of information and a lot of
connections. I'll say to any graduate or senior
undergraduates who wants to get on in the world, this
is a great starting place to get those basic skills of
how to work in an organization, how to interact with
bosses, for example, how to work under your own
initiative and how to show leadership, so it's a great place to start.
