Leaders in educating the next generation of entrepreneurs gathered at UMass Lowell this month for the seventh annual Deshpande Symposium for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
The symposium featured the annual Deshpande Symposium Awards, recognizing the best in entrepreneurial education.
The Excellence in Curriculum Innovation in Entrepreneurship Award was presented to UNC Greensboro’s Entrepreneurship Cross-Disciplinary Program. Dr. Dianne Welsh, the University’s Hayes Distinguished Professor of Entrepreneurship, is the program’s founding director.
“We congratulate Dr. Welsh for this outstanding honor,” said UNCG Provost Dana Dunn. “Because of Dianne’s decades-long commitment to building innovative courses that foster entrepreneurship at UNC Greensboro’s Bryan School of Business, the Entrepreneurship Cross-Disciplinary Program has grown exponentially under her leadership. UNC Greensboro graduates have launched successful businesses and the university continues to receive national recognition as an institution that demonstrates excellence and serves as a role model in the field.”
The entrepreneurship major and minor at UNCG focuses on the skills necessary to start a business, grow a business or enhance creativity and innovation in a corporate environment. Welsh is a globally known scholar in international franchising, family business and entrepreneurship.
More than 57 million Americans are employed by small businesses and each year, 200,000 new startups launch in the U.S. alone. Dr. Welsh is equipping a new generation of entrepreneurs to find their path to success in the marketplace.
Story by University Communications, with copy courtesy of UMass Lowell Office of University Relations
Photography by Tory Wesnofske for Deshpande Symposium/UMass Lowell
