Stories & Updates

The 15 latest recipients of Blue Hen 17&43 awards were announced at the recent Blue Hen Innovation Fest. These awards are Horn Entrepreneurship and the Lerner College of Business & Economics’annual recognition of the most promising early-stage startups founded by University of Delaware alumni.

Six more people have been inducted into Horn Entrepreneurship’s Honor Circle of Innovators, which recognizes transformational leaders who shape the future through innovation and entrepreneurship in Delaware and beyond.

The final round of Hen Hatch featured four teams with widely divergent concepts: straws that change color to discreetly reveal spiked drinks, an app for women to manage chronic health conditions, a clothing line that supports animal shelters and autonomous robots that look for leaks in water lines.

At Horn Entrepreneurship, every story has the power to inspire, connect, and spark new ideas and Alea Eldemire is often the one helping those stories come to life. As our Marketing & Content Specialist, Alea brings creativity and strategy together to showcase the impact of Horn’s work through blogs, social media, events, and more. A proud Blue Hen and passionate storyteller, she thrives on turning complex projects into meaningful narratives that resonate with our community. Get to know Alea and discover the energy, inspiration, and creativity she brings to the Horn team every day.

Nearly 200 students from 15 high schools joined together to participate in the EntreX Lab Delaware Connect design sprint, a timed competition in which students address a real-world problem and pitch their solutions to a panel of judges.

Get ready to celebrate creativity, big ideas, and entrepreneurial energy at the University of Delaware’s Blue Hen Innovation Fest on December 4. This dynamic event brings together UD students, alumni, and community members to connect, collaborate, and showcase their ventures. Whether you’re launching a startup, supporting fellow innovators, or simply curious about the future of entrepreneurship, this is the place to be!

Four teams advanced to the final round of Hen Hatch, UD’s premier startup funding competition, at the 2025 Blue Hen Innovation Fest on December 4. These finalists will compete to find out how much of the $50,000 prize pool will help them advance their ventures.

What happens when an improv mindset meets real-world leadership? For the first EntreX Impact Talk, Leadership Delaware CEO Mike Eppehimer showed our students and educators how a simple phrase—“yes, and”—can transform teams, careers and communities.

After six years of service in the United States Air Force, Evan McArdle, class of 2025, found a new mission: protecting the planet. Initially pursuing psychology at West Chester University, he realized his true calling lay in environmental science. That realization brought him to the University of Delaware, where he began his studies in Environmental Studies in 2022. It was there that he discovered an unexpected passion beneath the surface, scuba diving.