The ECenter is the co-curricular heart of ideas, innovation, and entrepreneurship at UNH. Our goal is to create the next generation of leaders with an entrepreneurial mind-set who can see opportunities and identify creative solutions others have missed, one idea at a time. Although part of UNH, we are independent of any one college.

We try and build a lot of new innovative programs here at the ECenter—often times not knowing exactly how they are going to work out. Really, we practice what we coach! One of those ideas was the Idea & Innovation Society. A concept we first heard about from our friends at Arizona State University, but that we built on to meet our objectives.

The premise is simple: we want to identify and engage incoming first-year students who have already started a company, organization or were active in innovation in high school. Our partnership with UNH Admissions last fall yielded us over 100 applications from which we selected 23 students. You can read more about the program and the first students participating, at the link at the end of this section.

What we wanted to add, is that in the very first six weeks some of the hoped-for magic has already started to happen. Three students, each from a different college, connected and have started to work together on a healthcare idea; several students are entering UNH’s Social Venture Innovation Challenge from CSIE; others are continuing to expand their companies with help from mentoring; the students requested to meet twice a month vs. the monthly schedule because they really enjoyed the outcomes; several approached asking, already, to make this a program that lasts for them for more than their first year. In turn, their excitement is starting to be contagious as they integrate into other programs on campus, including the Entrepreneurship Club. 

They are raising the bar just by doing. We are excited to see where this will all end up, but we are excited with the early days. Read more about the Idea & Innovation Society here.

“Some dates you look forward to, others you circle in red on the calendar. This date for the induction of the inaugural class into UNH’s Alumni Entrepreneur Hall of Fame is one of those circled dates on the calendar. This is truly a very exciting celebration”. This was the opening line of the ceremony on October 4 ^th made by ECenter Executive Director Ian Grant as part of UNHInnovation’s annual Innovators’ Dinner.

Due to the generosity of an anonymous UNH alum in the winter of 2018, the ECenter created the Alumni Entrepreneur Hall of Fame to celebrate the entrepreneurial success of UNH’s alumni.

Pictured top to bottom, Katie Bouton ’96, Christine “Chris” Dwyer M’72, Peter T. Paul ’67, Chris Rondeau ’94, and David Shaw ‘73 were the first five members inducted. Due to a last minute emergency, Peter Paul was unable to attend in person, but was recognized at a small presentation ceremony in November. President James Dean provided a recorded video congratulatory message to all inductees. Instead of a traditional acceptance speech, each inductee was asked to outline a problem he or she sees in the world that needs to be solved, and ways in which UNH could assist in the building of the solution.

A summary of the three minute challenges:

Katie Bouton: “Build a company that can do good work and have good lives. Build the case for a return on investment that connects mission and purpose and profitability.”

Chris Dwyer: “Children from families who are less advantaged are significantly less likely to be on track during adolescence, same is true for students of color. What are the opportunities for interventions during adolescence—high school—to help increase success in college?”

Chris Rondeau: “One in five youth report being bullied. 160,000 students a day don’t go to school for fear of being bullied. How do we stop it, disperse it, slow it down? How do we inspire kindness?”

David Shaw: “How can all of the new amazing technology be used to create stewardship for our critically important oceans? Stewardship is about political science, English language, good communications skills, engineering and physics. UNH could be the global center for all of these resources.”

Earlier in the day, the Hall of Fame inductees spent over two hours at a round-table event at the ECenter having engaging conversations with over 25 entrepreneurial students from all of the colleges on campus. The roundtable included a meaningful opportunity for several students who have started companies to get advice on solving some of their growth issues. This included Nikki Swartz (’18) who asked for suggestions as a woman entrepreneur on finding angel investors focused on women start-ups. Omar Nabulsi (’18) asked how to build credibility as a student when approaching customers. Francesco Mikulis-Borsoi (’20) and Kristian Comer (’20) who are both engineers, asked if it would be better to add a sales person to help them increase sales or go step-by-step themselves until they achieved a certain level. They both were 2018 winners of Holloway Prize for their now launched and revenue generating company, You Scheduler.

The thoughtful and insightful answers to each of the questions showed the level of experience and expertise each inductee had gained over the years. All of the students were appreciative and honored to be in a small personal forum. 

To read more about the inductees, visit our website.

To view of induction ceremony, visit our YouTube page.

To watch the student round table event with the 2018 inductees, visit our YouTube page.

To nominate an entrepreneurial UNH alum to be considered for induction in 2019, visit our website.

Pierce Atwood has been working with the ECenter for over a year now, providing program support in both gifts and in-kind services. They generously donate time to meet with UNH students and alumni on legal matters related to their ideas and start-ups. We're pleased to share that Pierce Atwood is now the primary sponsor of the ECenter's 2019 Summer Seed Grant program, now named the “Summer Seed Grant,  Sponsored by Pierce Atwood .” Thank you, Pierce Atwood!

To read more about Pierce Atwood's partnership with the ECenter, check out Pierce Atwood's press release .

If you're a UNH student or alum looking for more information on utilizing Pierce Atwood's in-kind services, email Ian.Grant@unh.edu .

The ECenter is partnering with Career and Professional Success (CaPS) again! This time, we're co-hosting a career fair just for start-ups and students interested in working at start-ups. The first-ever career fair at UNH just for start-ups will help start-ups find students with a wide range of skills and an understanding and passion for start-up environments. Students’ entrepreneurial skill sets come from the academic and experiential learning that happens across campus in every college, regardless of major.

Be a part of the innovative and entrepreneurship story at UNH and join us at the Start-up Career Fair on March 25th!

If you're a start-up interested in learning more about the career fair, visit the Handshake page just for you .

If you're a student interested in signing up to attend the career fair, visit the Handshake page just for you .



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Thank you.

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Ian Grant

Executive Director

Ian.Grant@unh.edu

(603) 862-5470

Peter T. Paul Entrepreneurship Center

21 Madbury Road, Suite 101

Durham, NH 03824

Heather MacNeill

Program Manager

Heather.MacNeill@unh.edu

(603) 862-4959

Peter T. Paul Entrepreneurship Center

21 Madbury Road, Suite 101

Durham, NH 03824