Twenty-four students will explore their potential to excel as entrepreneurs in an experiential graduate program to be launched by Carroll University and Tim Keane, director of Brookfield-based Golden Angels Investors, this September.
Through the graduate program in entrepreneurship, titled “The Entrepreneurial Journey,” students will earn a graduate certificate in entrepreneurship. The program will play out over the course of four work-heavy months encompassing 200 hours of instruction among five classes led by successful entrepreneurs. The program will also include a lean startup project that connects students to real customers as well as additional mentoring from other seasoned entrepreneurs.
“The idea is that it is more than a class or two or a lecture or meeting, and it’s less than committing to (starting) a company and (going) full time at it,” Keane said. “Our goal is no less than an experience that changes everything for the participants – that gives them not only the knowledge and the tools but the determination to face challenges with confidence and ability. We hope that it means that they’ll be able to connect to each other and then to the other people in the program in a more permanent and important way.”
The program will generally serve two groups of students: individuals wondering if entrepreneurship is the right career path and individuals seeking more information about how to successfully launch their own startup.
“Everyone will come out of this with the self-reliance to make the decision that they want to make,” Keane said.
The individuals in the program will be just as important as the curriculum at the center of it, he said.
“We’re looking for both entrepreneurs who want to work together on business ideas and maybe companies with startups and innovative ideas that want to send people to develop them,” Keane said.
In addition to Keane, course instructors are Andy Nunemaker, CEO of Dynamis Corporation and former CEO of EMSystems; Laura King, former president and CEO of NeuWave Medical; Bob Zieserl, a serial entrepreneur and venture capitalist based in Chicago; Daniel Weinfurter, a serial entrepreneur and creator of Parson Group; and Paul Schueller, founder and CEO of Franklin Energy.
“They’re a very impressive group of people,” Keane said.
Classes within “The Entrepreneurial Journey” will run on 14 Monday nights and eight Saturdays at the Global Water Center in Milwaukee. Keane envisions the program as an annual one with a cohort starting each September.
For more information about the graduate program and requirements, visit carrollu.edu/entrepreneur.
