Entrepreneurship course series prepares future business leaders

A series of three entrepreneurship classes offered at Washington State University Tri-Cities is pairing students with industry professionals to develop and launch new ventures in clean energy.

Paul Carlisle, an adjunct professor with the Carson College of Business who runs the program, said the classes are meant to be taken in succession. Students team up with a researcher who holds a freshly patented technology, often from nearby Pacific Northwest National Laboratories (PNNL), help create a business plan, and secure venture financing to create a viable business.

"The goal is that regardless of what the technology is, if the student was to take all three classes, they would have the preparation and access to launch a new business," Carlisle said.

Classes integrate business with new ideas

The three classes begin with new venture planning, followed by launching new ventures, and concluding with entrepreneurial management. Carlisle, who has been teaching entrepreneurial management since 2011, said these classes have been offered at WSU for many years, but were adapted at Tri-Cities to include participation within industry. They were offered as a series for the first time in the fall of 2023.

The first few weeks of each class are largely instructional, ensuring students are familiar with the process and certain business fundamentals. Then students meet with researchers and participate in an "innovation lab" sharing and applying the business skills they honed in those first weeks.

"The innovation lab is a noncredit workshop we run where PNNL researchers and community members learn about commercialization," Carlisle said. "Then we create this entrepreneurship course load in which those students within those three classes can participate in these workshops as part of their learning venture."

The final weeks are spent developing the business further and putting together a final plan for how the business will be commercialized. While similar in format, Carlisle said the classes build on one another as they progress-though he said there's plenty of benefit from taking a single class of the series.

Carlisle said PNNL has committed to hiring students who complete all three classes as interns. The national laboratory will then send them through the US Department of Energy's Energy I-Corps program, a two-month, immersive entrepreneurial training initiative meant to teach researchers to develop and sustain industry engagement and market awareness in US labs.

Series offers practical skills for all

As WSU Tri-Cities does not offer an entrepreneurship degree, Carlisle said the class series is part of an "innovation track" meant to complement a business degree-though the classes are open to all majors.

"The reason we're calling it 'innovation' is the goal here is not necessarily that everyone who takes this will start a business or be involved in a startup," Carlisle said. "They very much could be an intrapreneur trying to launch a new product within an existing business."

Participating students say the knowledge and expertise gained in these classes are valuable to all manner of professions. While he plans to become a middle school history teacher, Brandon Gale said the opportunity to work directly with a subject matter expert was too good to pass up. However, Gale said he found entrepreneurship training offers benefits that go beyond the world of business.

"Even if you're not interested in entrepreneurship, things like people skills, critical thinking, problem solving, and autonomy, no matter your discipline, will be valuable in your life," Gale said. "You're going to learn things that you will use for the rest of your life; that's just the reality."

Student Mychal Fry said while he's unsure if he wants to take on the risk inherent in starting a new venture, the class series was a major highlight of his time at WSU. Fry said the skills he learned will benefit his career, and the opportunity to network with industry professionals is almost as valuable as the degree itself.

"This kind of forces you out of your comfort zone and forces you to adapt and improvise and solve problems on the fly, which is a huge growth opportunity," Fry said. "So even in a general sense, this class series could benefit any student.

Public link

Please use the above public link if you want to share this noodl on another website.