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Entrepreneurs find new home in North Village

Feb. 6, 2009

By Ashley Corinne Killough
Staff Writer

Campus Living and Learning and the Hankamer School of Business have paired up to launch a new program in August, in which students with an entrepreneurial drive will have the chance to bridge their educational experience with their housing community.

In the Entrepreneurship Living and Learning Center, approximately 100 students will live in North Village for the participate in ongoing activities that aim to enhance leadership, planning and management skills.

In addition to group discussions, Mary Abrahams, director of the program, plans to bring in entrepreneurial and civic leaders to engage with students and provide tips on business management.

"It's sometimes very difficult for students who have their own business or who have plans to start one because they're doing it on their own," Abrahams said. "We want to provide for them a place where they can sit down and get some advice."

Abrahams said this particular housing option will allow students to benefit from living with like-minded students who think innovatively and creatively.

"When students are around others who talk about the advantage of entrepreneurial thinking, they can find those 'aha!' moments, where they ask, 'what if we could do this?'" Abrahams said.

The only requirements for the program, which is open to all majors and classifications, are an interest in entrepreneurial thinking and a commitment to participate.

The program has already attracted 50 applicants, most of whom are freshmen participating in the Entrepreneurship Engaged Learning Group. The ELG is similar to a Living-Learning Center in that it also places students in a residence hall with a central theme, but ELGs are designated for freshmen and run for two years, whereas Living-Learning Centers are open to all majors.

Cleburne sophomore Bryce Hagan, who aspires to write screenplays for a career, is a participant in one of the entrepreneurship ELGs in Kokernot Residence Hall.

"I have to be entrepreneurially minded because I'll essentially be self-employed. It's my job to write a story that a publishing company sees as profitable," Hagan said. "So once I finish a script, I have to send it in to whoever I think will buy it. It's a risky business, and until I get hired, it's just me and my pen."

Hagan views his goal as a calling and says the ELG provides an environment where he feels comfortable sharing his dream with others.

"Kokernot really feels like a second home and I know that most everyone else would agree. There's such a strong sense of community there that I don't get anywhere else on campus," Hagan said.

Zac Main, freshman from Ardmore, Okla., also participates in the learning group and will be living in the Living-Learning Center in North Village next year. Main said he appreciates the chance to work, think and build off the ideas and strengths of his peers in the ELG.

"It allows you to build friendships with people interested in the same things as you, and it allows you to learn how to build relationships with potential peers," Main said.

This is the first time Campus Living and Learning has created a Living-Learning Center out of a learning group -- a method Rishi Sriram, assistant dean for learning and engagement, called a success. Sriram said the program has been in the works for 12 to 18 months.

"Student Life has been desiring to create this kind of partnership with the business school for a long time and was looking for the best opportunity," Sriram said. "I think we are passing a tipping point as more in the university community are interested in connecting what happens inside and outside of the classroom for students."

As the ninth Living-Learning Center at Baylor, the program is a stepping-stone in the university's goal to have 50 percent of the student population living on campus by 2012. The campus currently houses roughly 40 percent.

"The excitement and energy around these programs is growing rapidly," Sriram said. "These programs bring faculty, staff and students together for one purpose: to enhance student learning."

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