Student entrepreneurs create new pathways with new education entrepreneurship model

Penn GSE and the Wharton School are collaboratively pioneering a new entrepreneurship model, whose approach combines academic work with practical experience. The model’s advantage? A student-entrepreneur will be in close proximity to a wide range of people, including academics, who can test the product and provide helpful feedback.

Martin Ihrig, a practice professor at Penn’s Graduate School of Education and an adjunct professor of entrepreneurship at Wharton, told Knowledge @ Wharton that “new [accelerator program] models are emerging on how to create ventures and scale them.”

The model of offering two routes to launching businesses with academic support — in school while pursuing a master’s degree part-time or through an incubator program — and is not limited to education startups. “We can bring research to practice by including the university in the entrepreneurial ecosystem,” said Ihrig.

Ihrig helped Penn GSE create the nation’s first Master’s degree in Education Entrepreneurship, which is designed at the intersection of education, business, and entrepreneurship. The thirteen-month program is delivered in an accelerated executive style, and provides working professionals with the knowledge, practical skills, and experiences necessary to create, fund, and manage innovations in education.

Penn GSE also helped create the Education Design Studio, a hybrid incubator and seed fund for education startups. Entrepreneurs who choose the incubator route have access to Penn GSE’s professors – as well as the latest research in their areas of interest. 

 

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