WFU receives $30M to advance entrepreneurship education
Wake Forest University has received a transformational $30 million gift to expand the University’s Center for Entrepreneurship and enhance access and opportunities for undergraduate students in the academic program. The anonymous gift is one of the most significant in the University’s history. The investment will enable Wake Forest to increase the number of experienced entrepreneurship faculty, develop innovative new courses, and fund the construction of state-of-the-art space for the growing program.
“This remarkable support allows us to elevate our Center for Entrepreneurship to new heights, ensuring extraordinary programs and offerings for our students,” said Wake Forest President Susan R. Wente. “This gift – and the inspiration it will spark – are vital to shaping the future achievements of students, faculty, staff and alumni.”
We are profoundly grateful for this gift and the ways in which it will enhance our capacity to educate entrepreneurial leaders of the future.”
President Susan R. Wente
Through the Center for Entrepreneurship, the University will offer students the opportunity to acquire core entrepreneurial skills, gain insights into the legal and financial foundations of new businesses, and collaborate with seasoned professionals to transform innovative ideas into successful ventures.
The popularity of Wake Forest’s entrepreneurship program has skyrocketed in recent years with more than 400 students enrolled in entrepreneurship courses this fall. Wake Forest student startups have been recognized on “Shark Tank” and featured on “Oprah’s Favorite Things” list.
An award-winning teaching method called IDEATE was developed by professors at Wake Forest. It helps students discover their best entrepreneurial ideas and is becoming a model for other universities nationwide. The gift will enable Wake Forest to add four new full-time professors of practice in the College of Arts and Sciences within the next two years to increase the availability and number of entrepreneurship offerings for students with an interest in entrepreneurship across all fields of study. These professors of practice will be seasoned entrepreneurs and innovators in their respective fields committed to outstanding teaching. The initial goal is to hire two faculty to begin teaching in the fall of 2025 and two more to begin in the fall of 2026.
According to the donor, the gift was driven by the question: “What important ideas are we missing by not having more opportunities for students to participate in entrepreneurship classes?”
The expansion will strengthen Wake Forest’s Center and enhance its standing as a leading institution for entrepreneurship, attracting top talent and building a best-in-class program that equips students to become the entrepreneurial leaders of tomorrow.
The program will be able to nearly double the number of course offerings to meet the growing demand, while also reducing class sizes. Plans also include launching new courses that will expand the scope of entrepreneurship topics. More faculty and smaller classes will create more opportunities for deeper student-faculty mentorship at all levels of the program.
“This investment will jumpstart our capacity to drive promising entrepreneurial ventures through our nationally acclaimed system and increase the quality and quantity of student startups,” said Dan Cohen, the John C. Whitaker Jr. Executive Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship and Professor of Practice. “The generous gift will further the mission of the entrepreneurship program to foster innovative thinking and develop leaders capable of creating immense economic and societal value.”
Entrepreneurship courses are open to undergraduates with any major and incorporate hands-on experience and cutting-edge research. The program’s core courses are based on four key milestones of developing an entrepreneurial mindset.
- Learning from practicing entrepreneurs what it means to launch a business from the ground up;
- Understanding proven strategies on how to generate innovative ideas;
- Determining which ideas are most likely to succeed; and
- Scaling a startup into a profitable business venture.
“Wake Forest is committed to educating and inspiring the next generation of entrepreneurs through transformational teaching and experiential learning opportunities,” said Dean of the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences Jackie Krasas. “Small classes and meaningful faculty-student engagement are at the heart of a Wake Forest education. This gift supports our Strategic Framework, in particular, our community of learning and builds our capacity to prepare and support the next generation of innovative thinkers.”
The gift will also support the University’s effort to expand classroom space, workshop spaces and collaborative learning spaces available to the program for signature curricular features including a home for Deacon Springboard, an early-stage accelerator program, and Startup Lab, a program designed for the next steps in startup development.
Wake Forest’s Center for Entrepreneurship has earned five national awards from organizations including the United States Association of Small Business and Entrepreneurship (USASBE) and the Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers (GCEC).
Entrepreneurship Center Startup Success Stories
Storage Scholars – On October 14, 2022, an estimated 3.4 million viewers tuned into ABC’s “Shark Tank,” to watch two young Wake Foresters – Sam Chason (’20) and Matt Gronberg (’20) – explain the plans behind Storage Scholars. After winning funding, the founders were featured on CBS: 2 college friends got a $250,000 ‘Shark Tank’ deal with Mark Cuban for the business they built from their dorm room. Launched in his first year at Wake Forest, Chason’s Storage Scholars business landed him a coveted spot in Winston Starts, a Winston-Salem incubator that partners with Wake Forest to build strong businesses.
Three Strands Recovery Wear – In her first year at Wake Forest, Leah Wyrick (‘22) was inspired to create a new surgical bra with special features like drain pocket holders and compression bands after seeing what her mom, Nancy, went through following a mastectomy. She shared her story and business idea at a pitch-over-pizza event sponsored by the Center for Entrepreneurship and was awarded $4,500 in initial funding to help develop the bra. She was the first freshman to be invited into the University’s Startup Lab. Three Strands Recovery Wear was featured on ABC in October 2024 during Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
The Nori Press – WFU college roommates Courtney Toll and Annabel Love created the Nori Press, a lightweight, at-home and travel-ready iron that was featured in November 2022 on Oprah’s list of “Favorite Things.” In September 2024, the Nori Press was featured on TODAY.
Categories: Entrepreneurship & Innovation, Transformative Giving, University Announcements
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