US Southeast

US Midwest

 

 

 

Northern Kentucky University

 

College of Business

Fifth Third Bank Entrepreneurship Institute

 

 

 

The Fifth Third Bank Entrepreneurship Institute at Northern Kentucky University offers academic and outreach programs in entrepreneurship.  The Institute is an exciting partnership between the fastest growing banking organization in the Tri-state region and the fastest growing university in the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

 

 

Northern Kentucky University (NKU) has a singular mission within the Commonwealth of Kentucky as a metropolitan and regional institution – to offer community college, baccalaureate, graduate, and professional programs that address the educational needs of a large and diverse population.  Through such programs, the University educates students to be productive citizens, to prepare them for success in careers and occupations, and to pursue a commitment to life-long learning.  As an educational, cultural, and social center, the University stimulates economic development and fosters the academic, artistic, and personal freedoms vital to a free society.  Northern’s enrollment is over 14,000 students, making it the second largest university in the greater Cincinnati area and third largest in the state of Kentucky.

 

 

 

MISSION

Serve the Northern Kentucky University region by maximizing learning opportunities for entrepreneurially inclined students and the regional business community by:

·         Being a comprehensive and valued resource for students, faculty, and the regional business community;

·         Delivering a nationally recognized entrepreneurship curriculum; and,

·         Conducting rigorously applied research on topics relevant and useful to entrepreneurs

 

 

 

PROGRAMS

Academic Programs

Entrepreneurship, creating value through innovation, is one of the fastest growing subjects in today’s business schools.  Entrepreneurship is, in fact, the fastest growing minor in the NKU College of Business, which is the fastest growing college at NKU. A number of factors are driving this interest. However, the primary driving force is the desire and need to compete creatively in both large and small firms.  The Fifth Third Bank Entrepreneurship Institute seeks to address this need in the regional community.

 

 

The focus of the academic programs in the Fifth Third Bank Entrepreneurship Institute is on generating ideas based on creativity, opportunity identification, feasibility studies, start-up activities, early stage strategies, sound business practices and new initiatives within corporate environments.  The overarching goal of the academic programs is to provide enrolled students with a unique opportunity to approach their careers from a paradigm based in integrated education, business partnerships, and creative solutions to business problems.  The programs have general business and entrepreneurship skills content combined with applied research opportunities for students with regional business leaders.  Educational objectives are to build a quality entrepreneurship education program by promoting the awareness of entrepreneurship as a career, teaching prospective entrepreneurs how to establish new enterprises, grow, manage and maintain them efficiently, and offer the skills necessary to operate entrepreneurially within large, established organizations.

 

                       

 

NKU now offers four academic entrepreneurship undergraduate programs and two graduate programs: the bachelor of Science in entrepreneurship; the minor in Entrepreneurial Studies; a post-baccalaureate certificate in Entrepreneurship; the Entrepreneurship track in the Bachelor of Science in Management degree, the Specialization in Entrepreneurial Studies within the Masters of Business Administration degree, and the specialization in Entrepreneurial Studies within the Masters of Science in Information Systems. While the minor is available to students who are pursuing a Bachelor of Science in one of the programs within the College of Business (Accounting, Economics, Finance, Information Systems, Management or Marketing), the primary target market for this minor is the student pursuing a baccalaureate outside of the College of Business. In addition, NKU now offers on-line programs in both the Certificate and Minor in Entrepreneurship.

 

           

 

For students across Northern Kentucky University, from the creative arts and communications to the natural sciences and technology, a minor in entrepreneurship offers the opportunity to use unique talents and technical expertise and turn them into successful careers and remarkable businesses.  And, for COB undergraduate and graduate students, a minor or specialization in entrepreneurship offers a powerful set of management skills and competencies useful throughout a life that might encompass several positions and even several careers across a wide variety of organizations.  This unique set of skills will be attractive to employers as well as prepare students for launching a new venture immediately after graduation or years later.

 

 

Our academic programs have been honored with numerous awards including being named one of the top 25 undergraduate entrepreneurship programs in the US by Princeton Review and Entrepreneur Magazine. We also received the 2007 NCEC Excellence in Entrepreneurship Teaching and Pedagogical Innovation Award, the 2006 NCEC Center of Entrepreneurial Leadership award, the 2003 AACSB Innovation in Education award and the Freedoms Foundation Leavey Award for Excellence in Private Enterprise Education.

 

 

 

Outreach Programs

 

 

 

 

Our outreach programs capitalize on the expertise of NKU faculty and staff, the insight and counsel of nationally and regionally recognized experts, and external market opportunities to serve the educational and professional assistance needs of entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs in a variety of environments: small businesses, closely-held businesses, not-for-profits, public corporations, intrapreneurial units of Fortune 500 corporations and future entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs in the region and in the NKU student body.

 

 

The Women’s Entrepreneurship Institute (WEI) at Northern Kentucky University is an exciting program offered by the Fifth Third Bank Entrepreneurship Institute in the College of Business at NKU and The New York Times Knowledge Network. The WEI will offer web-based classes and live, interactive webcasts featuring business leaders and journalists from The New York Times for female entrepreneurs.

The goal of the program is to encourage and educate women entrepreneurs by drawing upon the expertise of the NKU entrepreneurship faculty, the rich resources of the Times and the invaluable experience and knowledge of all participants in the program.

The EI engages high school students each year in an annual modified business plan competition. Each fall the NKU student entrepreneurship club (CEO) goes into participating high schools to help students prepare for the event. Each high school has their own elimination competitions and then each spring those students who win at their respective schools bring a business plan and display to the NKU campus to compete in the NKU Entrepreneurship High School Challenge. The NKU Entrepreneurship Challenge has been offered for the last five years and winners from previous years have gone on to compete and place nationally.

 

 

 

 

The Master Entrepreneur Award Program honors local entrepreneurs who have been internationally successful in their industries while supporting the regional community. The program is completely designed and executed by NKU entrepreneurship students under the direction of the Entrepreneurship Institute staff.

 

 

Chellgren Pathways to Entrepreneurship is a program which provides the opportunity for students from NKU and regional high schools, as well as members of our regional business community, to meet and learn from nationally recognized leaders in entrepreneurship.

 

 

 

 

CONTACTS

Rebecca White, Ph.D., Director, Fifth Third Bank Entrepreneurship Institute, Professor of Management and Entrepreneurship, College of Business, Northern Kentucky University, Highland Heights, KY 41099-0506  Phone: 859-572-5931. Website: http://ei.nku.edu

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