It's become a right of passage into summer -- every year around this time, I head to Indianapolis and jump on the I65 North to Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. I'm at Purdue to work with some of the brightest minds of our future -- 47 high schools students demonstrating achievement in science and math -- the type of bright young minds that will solve the world's biggest problems in the future and we are here to inject a bit of entrepreneurial juice into their DNA. What an amazing experience to be with these future cardiologists, engineers, medical doctors, scientists, and who knows what else! The energy and excitement in the room is infectious and I can only hope that others are as fortunate as I am to have an opportunity like this.
The Purdue Entrepreneurship Academy is 5 days in the life of an entrepreneur -- a boot camp with a twist. You can read about the program details here. Students are organized into startup teams upon arrival on Sunday and for the remainder of the week they work together as the founding team of a science or technology idea. The end game -- pitch their business proposition to a panel of investors and get the loot! As you guessed, my role is to help them answer the So what? who cares? why you? for their ideas and get these answers wrapped into their investor presentation.
Just when I think it can't get much better, it does. Our future is bright with these young minds percolating the next big ideas.
Check out the Purdue Entrepreneurship Academy, Class of 2009 on Facebook.
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