A Note From Nathalie-Spring 2021 Newsletter

As we navigate this interesting time of our lives, we all rely on the work of entrepreneurs and innovators to stay healthy, continue to work, and educate students. In this newsletter which closes the 2020-21 academic year, we want to thank our entrepreneurship students and entrepreneurial faculty for navigating the hurdles associated with teaching and learning and continuing to make progress towards degrees and graduation.

Purdue was one of the first universities in the country to commit to offering both in-person and online experiences to students during the 2020-21 academic year. While it certainly challenged our technological and teaching skills, there have been many positive outcomes that emerged from the disruption that will serve the Certificate in Entrepreneurship and Innovation well going forward. For example, it catalyzed the need for us to quickly create distance versions of our entrepreneurship fundamentals courses, which pushed us to revisit our curriculum in-depth, and gave us the opportunity to incorporate many entrepreneurship education best practices.

There was other good news, as well. This year, we moved up in the Princeton Review’s ranking of the Top 50 Undergraduate Entrepreneurship Education programs, which is a testament to our students, faculty, and staff. Alumni play an important role in these rankings as well, and we would like to encourage all ENTR alumni to complete our annual survey, which will be coming your way soon. Your input is essential to these rankings, as well as our ability to demonstrate the value of entrepreneurship education to a Purdue degree.

So, I write to share my gratitude for everyone’s creative, innovative, and entrepreneurial efforts over the past year. For the summer, I wish you good health and fewer Zoom calls!

Stay well and best wishes!