us to better tell our full story rather than have the impact diminished through separate events. The mission of the Entrepreneurship Center is to create a culture of entrepreneurship within the Sentry School, making us a destination for students interested in entrepreneurship and innovation. The Entrepreneurship Center also addresses a gap in the regional entrepreneurial ecosystem by serving as a launch point for very early-stage entrepreneurs who are likely not yet ready for the other resources in the region. Many of our students have side hustles and business ideas, but they do not think of themselves as entrepreneurs. By bringing students to Central Wisconsin, energizing them with the culture of innovation, encouraging their entrepreneurial ideas, and mentoring them as their ideas take shape, we will help launch the next generation of entrepreneurs. To accomplish this goal, the Sentry School is working to develop four lines of programming Part of creating a culture of entrepreneurship in the Sentry School is providing students with examples to model behavior and inspiration to convince them to think bigger. Bringing in speakers to talk about their experiences and share their ideas is one way of showing students what they could be. Early speakers, such as the previously mentioned John List and Liz Nilsen events, started this vein of programming by sharing their research and methodologies. More recently, podcaster, author, and serial entrepreneur Ben McDougal has come to campus for the last two years, talking about the entrepreneurial mindset and his experiences. Along with their keynote addresses, these speakers also met with students in smaller group formats at lunches and in classes. McDougal shared his time generously with students, meeting in small groups and scheduling time to meet individually with students to help develop their ideas. described in more detail below. Speakers and Educational Events
In addition to speakers, the Sentry School is also working to connect students with entrepreneur alumni and partners. This group forms another source of speakers, but also mentors. Entrepreneurs, such as Badger Paperboard founder, alum, and Business Advisory Council member Mark Smiley, come into classes, speak to our student clubs and advisory boards, and sponsor new events in the school. Another alumn, Matthieu Vollmer, founder of Arbré Technologies, teaches our entrepreneurship class and coaches our students. This year we also started a Lunch with an Entrepreneur event, bringing together dozens of entrepreneurs for small, personal connections with students interested in entrepreneurship. As with the larger scale speaker events, these more personal events provide inspiration to students, but they also emphasize a deeper mentorship connection that is a theme of our recent efforts.
Pitch Competitions A significant new venture of the Sentry School is entrepreneurship pitch competitions. Along with the early-stage First Pitch Ideas contest that began as a part of the Build the Basin project, the Sentry School has co-sponsored the regional Surge competition put on by CREATE Portage County and joined The Pitch, a startup business pitch competition for college student teams in Northeast Wisconsin. Participating in these pitch competitions gives students an opportunity to compete for small sums of money to fuel their early business ideas and gives them practice pitching for when they are soliciting larger amounts of financing in the future. The higher profile events also bring the Sentry School focus on entrepreneurship to the forefront and help build the overall culture of entrepreneurship we desire.
Central Wisconsin Report - Spring 2025
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