Alumni Views Sought: Entrepreneurs, Princeton-Style

Amid growing student interest in entrepreneurial courses and activities, the University has formed a study group to recommend ways to foster “entrepreneurship in the Princeton way.”

The Princeton Entrepreneurship Advisory Committee is encouraging alumni to take part in an online survey about their exposure to entrepreneurial opportunities on campus, whether entrepreneurship should be part of the Princeton experience, and if they are interested in mentoring students. The survey, which also is open to faculty and students, can be found at www.princeton.edu/entrepreneurship.

Professor Mung Chiang, chair of the committee, said alumni input will be a vital part of the group’s work and that visits to several cities are planned. He said the group will focus on developing a vision for entrepreneurship at Princeton and mechanisms to support that, learning from practices at peer institutions. The committee hopes to report to Provost David Lee *96 *99 and President Eisgruber ’83 by the end of 2014.

In April Chiang became director of the Keller Center, which promotes entrepreneurship on campus. The center will offer seven entrepreneurial courses this fall, the most it has offered in a single semester. Chiang said about 18 percent of seniors have taken at least one entrepreneurship course; two-thirds of the students are not engineering majors.

“We define ‘entrepreneurship’ in a broad way, including social entrepreneurship, technology entrepreneurship, and entrepreneurship within large organizations,” Chiang said. “We think of ‘entrepreneur’ not as a job title, but as a mindset to challenge convention and to pursue transformative changes.”