A Model for Student Business Incubators
- Lynn Jahn, University of Iowa

In May 2004, the John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center at The University of Iowa (UI) opened the 10,000 square foot Bedell Entrepreneurship Learning Laboratory, a business incubator open exclusively to UI students.

Participants will receive an in-depth overview of the student incubator program serving as a model for academic institutions interested in expanding experiential learning opportunities. Combining office space, equipment and resources found in traditional incubators with intense one-on-one mentoring, business plan development and support in an academic environment, the program is a natural extension of a cross-campus, academic program offering certificates in entrepreneurship to all undergraduate students as well as specialized programs for engineering and graduate students. In the two years since the program was launched, 75 students from 30 teams have participated, of which 20% were engineering majors and 70% of the teams were interdisciplinary teams.

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