Lehigh’s entrepreneurship program has expanded its partnership with the Nasdaq Center on the West Coast.
Lehigh’s Startup Academy, a new entrepreneurship program, is an undergraduate educational opportunity offered through Lehigh. According to them, Website, whose goal is to help students develop relevant skills and an entrepreneurial mindset to succeed in their careers. An important part of this program is to give students practical experience to demonstrate their skills.
Lehigh’s partnership with the Nasdaq Center began in 2017 with Lehigh@NasdaqCenter, a program that gives students the opportunity to work with startups.
Lehigh’s Startup Academy is one of the programs the center offers to help students gain real-world experience and work with startup companies in San Francisco. This expansion is intended to give Lehigh students opportunities outside of the school’s geographic boundaries.
Sam Dewalt, Managing Director of Lehigh@NasdaqCenter, explained the reason for the program expansion:
“Silicon Valley is definitely a center of entrepreneurial activity and will continue to play a very important role in the programs we continue to offer to our students,” DeWalt said.
DeWalt said students and startups can mutually benefit from immersive experiences, whether physical or virtual.
As part of our expansion, we will also be looking at other locations that offer even more business opportunities.
“Our mission is to develop the next generation of global entrepreneurial leaders,” DeWalt said. “To that end, we educate, connect and inspire Lehigh students of all backgrounds, regardless of field or career path.”
According to the press release of startup magazine, Lehigh’s Nasdaq Center has served more than 1,400 students since opening in 2017. More than 400 students took advantage of the program last year.
Lehi is exclusive partnership This means we are the only higher education institution to collaborate in this way with the Nasdaq Center.
DeWalt said the partnership Nasdaq Entrepreneur Centera nonprofit program working to improve access to knowledge about entrepreneurship, was looking for a school to collaborate with.
Mr. Lehi contacted the Nasdaq Entrepreneurship Center in 2016 by: Lehi Silicon Valleya program run by the Lehigh Baker Institute for Entrepreneurship, Creativity, and Innovation.
“The Nasdaq Center for Entrepreneurship was seeking an academic partner to strengthen its entrepreneurship education and research efforts,” DeWalt said. “Lehigh took advantage of this and has since shared space with them in San Francisco.”
Startup Academy was one of the opportunities that came out of this relationship.
Gabby Covino, 25, is studying finance and accounting and is a member of the program.
“I’ve always loved the idea of a startup,” Covino said. “I think it’s great to be a founding member of a team, have that responsibility and watch something grow.”
Covino said he believes this expansion will benefit students by giving them another location where they can access more and different opportunities through the program.
Shreya Chawla, 25, is studying international relations, economics and environmental science. She is also a member of her Startup Academy program, which she says she learned from her experience.
“We were thrown into an atmosphere where we had to learn a lot about ourselves,” Chawla said. “Also, being able to interact directly with CEOs and managers has given us a lot of power in our position.”
Chawla said this communication helped the team understand the goals of each individual role and how to think outside the box.
Chawla, a student in the College of Arts and Sciences, said she has not studied anything directly related to entrepreneurship. She said she would recommend the program to anyone who wants to learn more about business, regardless of a student’s educational choice.
“I don’t plan on becoming an entrepreneur right away, but I still believe I gained a lot from the experience I spent around the area and its people,” Chawla said.
