January 28, 2021
Miller School wins national award
Taylor Walden (right), owner of Simple & Sentimental, won the inaugural Pirate Entrepreneurship Challenge, sponsored by the Miller School of Entrepreneurship. With the help of her award money, Walden expanded her business, hired locally and opened a storefront. (Contributed photo taken pre-COVID)
Last year, East Carolina University’s Miller School of Entrepreneurship and its student entrepreneurship program, RISE29, was honored for its co-curricular innovation by the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (USASBE) at its annual conference.
“At the Miller School, we don’t rest on our laurels,” said Dr. Mike Harris, director, Miller School. “We wanted to have a stronger presence, albeit virtual, during this year’s USASBE, and we sure did.”
USASBE announced ECU as the recipient of the 2021 USASBE Model Emerging Program Award, one of the organization’s four prestigious annual honors recognizing excellence in entrepreneurship education. The announcement was made Jan. 8 as part of USASBE 2021.
The USASBE Model Emerging Program Award recognizes colleges and universities with new or restructured entrepreneurship programs that show outstanding progress toward becoming comprehensive, bold, and innovative educational programs with demonstrated student impact. Previous award winners include Eastern Washington University (2020), Florida State University – Jim Moran College of Entrepreneurship (2019), Grove City College (2018), and North Carolina State University (2017).
The Miller School was recognized for making great strides in developing an ecosystem of effective entrepreneurship education, impactful research and accessible programming.
USASBE 2021 Program Awards Chair Bruce Teague echoed those sentiments, adding, “All the finalists are doing incredible things to build unique and dynamic entrepreneurship programs, but the Miller School of Entrepreneurship at East Carolina University is creating real impact.”
To demonstrate that viability, the Miller School submitted to USASBE the RISE29 program as an example. The program is funded by a $1 million grant from the Golden LEAF Foundation, a supporter of economic revitalization across North Carolina. The heart of RISE29 lies with student entrepreneurs responding to community-driven needs.“Our goal is to demonstrate the viability of entrepreneurship as a key element of regional economic development,” said Dr. Dennis Barber III, assistant professor, Miller School.
The Miller School faculty also shared impressive numbers related to student-led team consulting projects. In the past three years, faculty have served 81 clients with over 300 students accumulating approximately 27,300 hours of service-learning.
Finally, the Miller School submitted the recently launched Accelerate Rural NC initiative. This rural business accelerator is focused on helping small businesses gain access to global markets with innovative product offerings.
“The Miller School serves as a hub for preparing students to take an entrepreneurial mindset and skillset into their communities,” said Harris. “In addition to our unique entrepreneurship curriculum, the school links with key strategic partners to offer co-curricular programs that help catalyze regional transformation.”
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