Stories & Updates

It’s a bright, blue, sunny day and you decide to take a trip to the ballpark with your friends. The game is tied and everybody is excited to see what happens next. All of a sudden your chest tightens up and you begin to wheeze. It feels impossible to get a breath and now your friends all begin to panic. You pull out your inhaler and head for the car. Just a moment ago your biggest worry was your favorite team winning, and now it’s hoping to make it out of the hospital before the day ends.

This year’s Startup302 competition attracted 125 startups from Delaware, the Philadelphia region, the United States and countries including Canada, Brazil, Colombia, Italy, Nigeria, Uganda and Bangladesh. These teams competed for a prize pool totaling $170,000. 

Horn Entrepreneurship reaches far beyond the confines of the University of Delaware and through an unexpected lens - the Diamond Challenge. This global youth entrepreneurship competition engages more than 1800 teens annually from more than 30 countries. Leading the Diamond Challenge is a new team member at Horn, Maggie Nelson.

Horn began its summer in April with Diamond Challenge Summit semifinalists and Ice cream. UDairy' Moo Mobile was founded in partnership with Horn Entrepreneurship in 2013.

The summer founder teams at orientation on June 6, 2022, await a full 12 weeks ahead of them.

This summer six teams have been selected to participate in Horn Entrepreneurship's Summer Founders, a 12-week pre-accelerator program for student ventures.

The Summer Founders opportunity provides its participants with a combination of training sessions and resources, coaching, mentorship, and events to facilitate their venture's journey from idea to launch. At the end of their training in August, the teams will be prepared to present for demo day, where each team will pitch their ideas to members of the local business community.

In the US, there are currently thousands of incarcerated students attempting to gain an education, yet their environments lack the needed resources to effectively facilitate learning. Working feverishly to solve that issue is Sia Precision Education, a software development company that uses artificial intelligence to improve education for students in low-resource settings. Acting as their Chief Business Officer is Carlos Benito, a senior at the University of Delaware and an avid member of the Horn Entrepreneurship community.

This article first appeared on the blog for Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics on May 24, 2022.  Lavar Thomas's graduate studies include an M.S. in International Studies and his work on his social startup, Leaders of the Free World with the opportunities available through UD's Horn Entrepreneurship.

Dear colleagues and friends,

Horn Entrepreneurship has a tradition of developing a new annual theme and rotating through t-shirt slogans and window clings. While we have previously gone back to a classic – “Making our own waves” – we have generally moved on from one year to the next. As you will undoubtedly notice next time you visit the VDC in person, the theme of achieving “Equity thru Entrepreneurship” (ETE) represents a notable and worthy exception.

Many great innovations, societal changes and inventions begin with the question, “what if…?” Fourteen Delaware Innovation Fellows (DIF) hailing from 11 majors presented answers to their “what if” questions at the 2022 DIF Innovation Showcase. Their answers were the basis of their capstone innovation project and the culmination of work completed during their three-phase fellowship.

The Horn Hen of the Month article series is a 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. 

The winning student will receive a gift card, a Horn Hen of the Month certificate, and will have a feature written about them and the work that they are doing outside of the Horn community. Congratulations to last month’s winner, Hunter Wills! Read more about Hunter on the blog.

To nominate a student, fill out this Google form. Any student involved with Horn Entrepreneurship is eligible to be nominated.