By Entrepreneurship is gaining interest among college students, and universities are heeding the need for programs that benefit students and foster venturesome dreams.
The Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Long Beach State started in 2017 and offers many resources to students with entrepreneurial ideas.
The IIE provides services such as business plan assistance, weekly networking gatherings, mentorship and statewide and nationwide competitions to help students enter the business world.
Wade Martin, IIE director, said the foundation’s goal is to assist students in developing their business ideas after graduation in order to help them grow their businesses further and prepare for the real world.
“We also try to stress that the skills we’re teaching don’t only apply to those around business. You’re getting skills that will help you if you go to work for a large corporation,” Martin said.
Martin said that skills such as leadership, cooperation and creativity are preeminent in the institute and are taught to prepare students to stand out from others.
“I think that students that are engaged in these types of programs are more likely to get more out of their education,” Martin said. “They start to see things from a different perspective; you get an appreciation for the role creativity plays in your life.”
Christina Lang, a CSULB MBA alum and assistant director of the institute, participated in the Apostle Business Ideation Challenge as a student.
The competition is encourages students to present their business pitches in exchange for a cash prize.
Lang won the competition with her startup, Mindful Performance, an app that provides mental and physical coaching for student-athletes experiencing turbulent times.
The idea and formation of the app was crafted after Lang spoke with a former classmate who was a coach. The coach had issues with one of their players being unable to perform due to struggles with their emotional well-being.
The app is geared towards student-athletes to help them “lock in,” Lang said.
It does so by helping student-athletes focus and retreat from burdening situations, steering students to redirect their energy toward athletic performance using personalized one-on-one mental life coaching and offering yet-to-be-added workshops.
The app is currently in its beta version. It is free to use, but first access requires a waiting list entry.
Gabriel Schultz is the founder of myEMSpath, a startup aimed at helping EMTs, paramedics and firefighters expedite their careers in a single automated platform. The startup assists in job search and certification management.
Schultz is a recent CSULB alumni as well as a reservist firefighter in the Marine Corps and a fourth-year EMT.
He came up with his idea after conversations with colleagues in emergency services who frequently had issues getting jobs or moving up in the industry.
Though the members of the institute have different startup ideas, Lang said the IIE provides “passive guidance” through team meetings to discuss potential issues, not restricting their various interpretations and freedoms.
“You always think it’s easy, but it’s a process, back and forth,” Lang said. “You have to learn to lead yourself and manage yourself, but the institute is always there.”
