The energy and excitement of almost 400 teens and parents from around the world was palpable at the Diamond Challenge Summit on April 23-25, 2023. The Summit, a three day conference celebrating entrepreneurial high school students, featured workshops, panel discussions, innovation sprints, and networking opportunities to connect, inspire, and build a community of aspiring young entrepreneurs.

UD’s Entrepreneurship program Jumps to 33rd in The Princeton Review and Entrepreneur Magazine’s 2023 List of Top Undergraduate Schools for Entrepreneurial Studies, 4th Regionally

For the fourth year in a row, the University of Delaware’s Horn Entrepreneurship program is one of the best in the nation, according to The Princeton Review and Entrepreneur magazine. The joint ranking places UD at No. 33 in its 2023 list of the top 50 undergraduate schools for entrepreneurial studies and No. 4 in the Mid-Atlantic, a significant jump from 2022.

Horn Entrepreneurship is happy to announce that we recently welcomed a new faculty member to the community, Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship Duygu Phillips. Phillips joins us from Oklahoma State University, where she worked as a postdoctoral researcher after earning her Ph.D. in Entrepreneurship to complement a master’s degree in marketing from the University of Birmingham(UK) and undergraduate degrees from Galatasaray University in communications as well as advertising and public relations. 

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.

Horn Entrepreneurship has an award-winning team

Horn Entrepreneurship honors two of their own who join a list of well recognized staff and faculty. From left to right: Tricia Monning and Laura Gasiorowski

At the Lerner Staff Meeting on April 22, two members of Horn Entrepreneurship were recognized for their contributions to the Lerner community throughout the year.

Edited by: Brandon Leo

How bias affects pitching competitions

Dr. Daniel Lee is one of the newest and most intriguing professors at Horn Entrepreneurship at the University of Delaware. Professor Lee earned his B.A. in math and economics from Emory University, as well as his M.A. and Ph.D. in economics from Georgia State University. His economics start led him to entrepreneurship because he wanted to see how economic theory would translate into the real world, where people were actually starting up businesses and requesting funding. Dr. Lee saw a lack of public data and focused on finding results to help future entrepreneurs. Dr. Lee is currently studying the effects of free time on entrepreneurship.

Meet Felicia Harrington. Joining the Horn team at the University of Delaware in a new position as Program Manager for EntreX Lab, a K-12 dual enrollment initiative. Felicia brings her compassion for understanding K-12 educational challenges, along with years of working with high school youth as a teacher, administrator and innovator. 

Article by Christine E. Serio-Shively | Photos by Lindsey Mix | Photo illustration by Heidi McDonough

Once a molecular biology major, Lynn Roberts’ academic journey and interests took a drastic turn from science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) when she delved deeper into the University of Delaware’s Horn Entrepreneurship.  

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