Stories and Updates | Horn Entrepreneurship

Horn ranked for entrepreneurial studies by The Princeton Review and Entrepreneur magazine

Written by Daniel J. Freeman | Nov 12, 2019 3:30:43 PM

Since its founding in 2012, Horn Entrepreneurship has persistently focused on doing the right things to optimize the positive impact of entrepreneurship education on students, the University of Delaware and the broader community. This includes:

Putting students first

Horn Entrepreneurship exists to empower students (including the many youth, graduate students, postdocs, faculty and community members who participate in our programming) by helping them to develop the mindset and skill set needed to discover their interests, realize their fullest potential, successfully pursue their individual aspirations and thrive amidst rapid change.

Building better entrepreneurs, not ventures

Horn Entrepreneurship offers a holistic curriculum that includes professional development, mindfulness, individual leadership, communication and many other topics that are meant to add to each student’s means for creating value from new ideas. We actively support startups because they provide a powerful vehicle to accelerate learning.

Operating as a meritocracy

Horn Entrepreneurship strives to ensure that the best ideas always win, irrespective of whether they come from the director, a major donor, a student or someone with no connection to Horn Entrepreneurship. Moreover, we aim to invest our scarcest and most valued resources in the people and teams who have truly earned them.

Partnering for mutual benefit

Horn Entrepreneurship actively partners with like-minded individuals and organizations – both on-campus and off – to maximize our collective, positive impact on students, the University and the broader community. We recognize that partnerships are sustainable only when both sides realize valued benefits.

Nurturing an inclusive, lifelong community

Entrepreneurship is best played as a team sport wherein everyone can go further and faster by welcoming, supporting and collaborating with one another.

By doing what’s right, Horn Entrepreneurship has built a national network of partners and supporters, grown course enrollments by more than 12X and expanded its footprint to serve students from more than 100 different undergraduate majors. By doing what’s right, Horn Entrepreneurship has been privileged to stand behind dozens of award winning students and startup ventures – offering them guidance, mentorship, community, funding and other resources – and cheering as they’ve created jobs and generated tens of millions of dollars in revenues and follow-on funding. And by doing what’s right, Horn Entrepreneurship has begun to attract recognition for the University. Recent national and international honors/awards include:

  • Rated as offering the #1 youth entrepreneurship competition (Diamond Challenge).
  • Selected as a 2019 finalist for “Best Specialty Program” by the Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers (Horn Youth).
  • Recipient, 2019 U.S. Small Business Administration “Growth Accelerator Award,” which includes a $50,000 prize (Blue Hen Proof of Concept Program).
  • Recipient, prestigious National Science Foundation Phase II Award ($180,000) to continue UD’s highly successful I-Corps Site Program.
  • Selected as one of three Universities for an Air Force pilot program for technology commercialization (with Stanford and MIT).
  • Recognized as a top school for undergraduate entrepreneurship by Princeton Review/Entrepreneur magazine (just seven years after founding!).

These accolades highlight what the Horn Entrepreneurship team, students, supporters and many other stakeholders have known since our founding – we’re building something special together to power a better world.

As Horn Entrepreneurship aims to continue to increase the positive impact of entrepreneurship education across campus and throughout the broader community, it will be imperative to continue to do the right things. This includes maintaining dissatisfaction with the status quo by engaging in continuous problem solving, experimentation and iteration to improve the impact and ROI created, delivered and captured by our offerings. It also includes continuing to learn new things and grow the Horn Entrepreneurship community. We invite you to join us – www.udel.edu/joinhorn.

About Horn Entrepreneurship

Horn Entrepreneurship serves as the University of Delaware’s creative engine for entrepreneurship education and advancement. Built and actively supported by successful entrepreneurs and thought leaders, Horn Entrepreneurship empowers aspiring innovators and entrepreneurs as they pursue new ideas for a better world.