The School of Innovation & Entrepreneurship is proud to announce that over 60 students have completed the 2022 Think Like an Entrepreneur Summer Academy (TLAE), with each student earning three college credit hours that can be used at Rowan University or transferred to another college or university.

TLAE is an award winning program for rising high school juniors and seniors that focuses on the development of soft skills, including fostering of an entrepreneurial mindset and on the development of specific entrepreneurial knowledge and expertise. Regardless of intended major, the program allows all students to benefit from the type of creative mindset, hard work and initiative that power startups.

TLAE introduces the Sustainability Development Goals (SDGs) established by the United Nations and challenges students to use entrepreneurial concepts to solve global problems such as pollution, mental health, poverty, accessibility to clean water, education and more.

Students traveled to New York City to attend Micro-, Small, and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSME) Day 2022 at the United Nations where they attended panel discussions, toured the grounds and got an inside look at the organization that developed the SDGs. Students also attended a discussion lead by Dr. Eric Liguori, Head of the School of Innovation & Entrepreneurship, on the importance of entrepreneurship education on college campuses.

The program ended with a pitch competition where students presented their business concepts to a panel of judges including Dr. Cheryl Bodnar (Associate Professor of Experiential Engineering Education Department at Rowan University), Jerah Siegal (founder of Biodome), Raymond Lamboy (President & CEO of the Latin American Economic Development Association, Inc.) and Soley Berrios (Director of Community Impact at Saint Joseph’s Carpenter Society).

Congratulations to Teen Talk Therapy who won first place for their business idea that gives high schools an affordable application for students to access mental health resources, therapists and peer support networks. Thank you to our sponsor TD Charitable Foundation for making this program possible.

Accelerate South Jersey seeks to help those in Camden and Gloucester counties facing economic or other hardships to start and grow businesses of their own.

Click here to learn more and to apply. Applications are being accepted through August 1st.