Innovators innovate. 

Problem solvers solve. Turbulent times require both.

Never has the mission and the relevancy of the ECenter been more apparent. I am proud of the ECenter team members, Heather MacNeill and Allison Bell, who have stepped up over the past few months to ensure that the high impact experiential programs we offer students have continued this summer, specifically our Summer Seed Grant and Paid Student Internship at Start-ups Program. The unique value of our internships at start-ups is that students learn by being and living in the trenches, wearing multiple hats and seeing founders do the same. The Summer Seed Grant gives student the opportunity to work on their start-up ideas and be paid to do it. Both programs are off and running!

With the events of the past few months surrounding racial inequality and injustice, it was personally important to me that the ECenter as an organization, me as its leader, and our entire team pause to assess whether we are doing our part to support diversity and be a welcoming environment for under-represented students from a variety of backgrounds. After all, our stated mission from the very beginning has been to support the ideas of "ALL students from all colleges and majors." So, we put into practice what we preach to students and performed “customer discovery” with students and alumni of color to not only get direct feedback on our past, but to help us think about how to improve going forward.

While these conversations confirmed what we hoped was the case – that the ECenter is a welcoming place where young entrepreneurs of color feel unconditionally supported – it also highlighted that we could do more to encourage greater engagement and participation from those under-represented populations who may not have the same level of initial ease upon finding us at Madbury Commons, particularly during their first year on campus. Many of the students and alumni we spoke with offered to be part of the solution going forward. Thank you to Geno Miller ‘18, Joel Nkounkou ’18, Nelson Thomas ‘20, Samara Walker ‘14, and so many others. Ideas were generated from these conversations to open the door wider and to develop specific programs that meet the needs of a diverse student population. We are close to finalizing some of these to launch in the fall 2020 semester. We look forward to seeing the impact they have and make any necessary modifications from what we learn for future semesters.

 

Innovation knows no color, no gender, no culture, no geography, and no childhood background. Ideas, innovation, and entrepreneurship should succeed on the merits of the problems they solve, the customers’ wants, and price the customers are willing to pay for the goods/service. The ECenter continues to do all that it can to ensure that.

Stay curious,

The ECenter's oldest program, the Summer Seed Grant, saw a boost in funding this year, thanks to sponsor Pierce Atwood LLP. Instead of the previous $3,500 per person for the nine week program, each awardee receives $4,000.

The Summer Seed Grant is a unique program that pays students to work on their early-stage ideas/start-ups over the summer without having to find a summer job. The students typically work out of UNHInnovation's Cube ^x  Coworking Space, but this summer, due to COVID-19, all students are working remote. They're also receiving weekly one-on-one mentorship from seasoned entrepreneur Mike McClurken and ECenter Executive Director Ian Grant. Many thanks to Mike for spending his summer on this with us!

Ten start-ups applied and went through a first round of judging.

After the finalists presented in front of the final round judges, we were thrilled to award $4,000 each to Nathaniel Hunt '22 (COLA), Brady Esmaili '23 (CEPS), Joey Neleber '22 (CEPS), and Nicolas Camara '21 (CEPS) for Spaitr and Alhussein Al-Jawad '22 (CEPS) for Valetan.

Spaitr is a two-fold venture consisting of a diagnostic tracker attachment to a lacrosse stick and an app to serve as a way for coaches to track the team's results, growth, and diagnostics.

Valetan is an online service that allows people to have their cars parked and delivered to them with worry-free convenience.

Congratulations, Nathaniel, Brady, Joey, Nick, and Al!

Thank you to our lead sponsor, Pierce Atwood!

While many internships for UNH students were cancelled due to COVID-19, the ECenter's Paid Student Internship at Start-ups Program is running this summer, nearly at capacity. Sponsored by the Patten Family Foundation and other generous UNH alumni, nine UNH Durham students are getting hands-on experience working at a start-up company. This was increased from six students last summer. We started this program because we recognize that not all students have the “a-ha” idea right away and/or they want to learn about and understand the inner workings of a start-up and help in the building process.

Typically, this program provides that experiential learning opportunity over a 10-week period and students receive a stipend of $4,000. This summer, a few of the students have abbreviated internships of seven weeks in order to provide the opportunity, but to make sure the office setting is safe and follows state regulations.

This is the fourth summer we have run the Paid Student Internship at Start-ups Program. We had over 25 companies and over 20 students apply this year.

The nine students matched for internships this summer are:

Email Senior Program Manager Heather MacNeill at [email protected] if you're a student or start-up interested in learning more about the program. We can also add you to a notification list to be alerted to the applications on our website when they are available for downloading.