Stories & Updates

The Horn Hen of the month article series is a brand new series dedicated to highlighting Horn students that are inspiring others and impacting their community. One nominated Horn student will be chosen each month and a written feature will document their hard work and progress as they go through their time at Horn.

Horn Entrepreneurship and E-club welcomed our amazing student entrepreneurs and innovators to the VDC once again for our semi-annual pitch party, back to in-person at the VDC for the first time since pre-Covid. We had a full house, with 11 students joining us to pitch and a flock of spectators coming in to watch and support their peers as they pitched their best ideas. 

University of Delaware 2022 graduate and former Horn Ambassador Lilly Checkoff began her start in entrepreneurship at a very young age. With her non-profit Tools For School, she provided thousands of backpacks and school supplies for underprivileged children. This non-profit guided and inspired her to surround herself with all things business once accepted as a University of Delaware freshman. Through her time at UD, she became heavily involved with Horn's different programs and excelled as a responsible student of entrepreneurial leadership. Now, as a 2022 graduate, Lilly aims to make the world her own and use her background in entrepreneurship to guide her. 

This article is part of a series celebrating the 10^th anniversary of Horn Entrepreneurship by highlighting alumni, their stories and accomplishments.  

Back in 2012, when Ben Rapkin took his first entrepreneurship class, instructor Dan Freeman, the founding director of Horn Entrepreneurship, asked him to restart the Entrepreneurship Club. 

Horn Entrepreneurship and E-club will host the Fall Pitch Party on Wednesday, October 26, 6:30 - 8:30 p.m. in the Venture Development Center. The Fall Pitch Party is designed for those new to pitching an idea, with students sharing startup concepts to an audience of their peers and a panel of judges composed of recent entrepreneurial alumni. This year's event is particularly special, as we return to an in-person format for the first time in years. Advance registration is required for both spectators and presenters. Register by October 19. 

Fourteen teams advanced to the semifinal round of Hen Hatch, UD’s premiere startup funding competition. Three semifinalists from each track (pre- and post-revenue) will advance to the 2022 Hen Hatch Final Round which will take place on Dec. 1 at the Audion. Rewards of startup cash and prizes will total $50,000 with additional in-kind gifts. 

Entrepreneurs change the world. 

That is the heart of Charlie Horn’s philosophy on teaching, thinking and approaching solutions to societal challenges.

This article was originally published on UDaily.

More than 150 students from ten high schools joined together to participate in the EntreX Lab Delaware Connect design sprint, a timed competition in which students address a problem and pitch a solution to a panel of judges.

For a class assignment in one of Shaun’s entrepreneurship classes, he was told to walk around campus for a day and write down any issues he came across. He noticed that  many college students are unable to attain part time jobs during the school year for a variety of different reasons, but still needed extra cash. This problem sparked the basis for Shaun’s startup, Backyard gig.

The Signature Internship Program by Horn Entrepreneurship connects entrepreneurship majors with organizations for the purpose of helping these students gain hands-on experience.