Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship and economic development are integral to our success as a University. These initiatives take our discoveries and passions outside the classroom and allowing our students and alumni to make an impact in their community, exemplifying our aspiration to make the world ever better.

Entrepreneurship in the Curriculum

Entrepreneurship in the arts and sciences can manifest itself as innovative thinking and the interdisciplinary cultivation of ideas and creativity. Numerous departments offer courses with an entrepreneurship component.

  • Digital Media Studies: Senior Capstone Project

    Seniors plan, design, and deliver a digital media solution, such as custom-built applications, in collaboration with Rochester-area businesses or clients.

    DMS Capstone Projects

  • Anthropology: Social Network Theory and Entrepreneurship

    Students analyze cutting-edge research and network modeling techniques, with many new and interesting interdisciplinary implications, especially for entrepreneurship.

    Visit the Anthropology Website

  • Art History: Art New York

    In this semester-long program, students enhance their knowledge of the world of contemporary art and culture with first-hand experience working and studying in New York City.

    More about Art New York

  • Biology: Ecosystem Conservation and Human Society

    Students in the course study approaches to conservation biology and how such approaches influence economic and political policy at local, national, and international levels.

    Visit the Biology Website

  • Business: Entrepreneurship

    Students in the entrepreneurship track will learn the critical skills needed to navigate the startup landscape and drive innovation within existing organizations.

    Get a BS in Business

  • Political Science: Nature of Entrepreneurship

    Using theory, data, and case studies, students in this course investigate what it means to be an entrepreneur and what characterizes the entrepreneurial society.

    Visit the Political Science Website
John Nichol standing behind a dilution refrigerator, used to study quantum systems, including nuclear-spin dark states.

SAS Ventures

Leading by Example

Our professors in the School of Arts & Sciences lead by example. Their research, discoveries, activism, and creativity are routinely applied beyond academia to commercially or socially minded ventures. See the University Newscenter for stories featuring our faculty and students.

Scientists Prove Existence of Nuclear-Spin Dark State

Entrepreneurial Support for Undergraduates

We partner with the Ain Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation to provide arts and sciences students at Rochester with the chance to participate in workshops, competitions, projects, and other opportunities to create value—both economic and social—in our communities.

The e5 Program also offers selected students a fifth, tuition-free year of college to pursue entrepreneurial endeavors.

Some past projects include:

  • ArtAwake, a music and arts festival held in an underused urban space
  • inspireDance Festival, a collaborative project that connects student dancers on campus with each other, with the Program of Dance and Movement, and with the larger dance community in the Greater Rochester area
  • UR Consulting Group, a student-run organization providing pro bono business services for startups and local not-for-profits
  • UR Microfarm, where students and community members cultivated vegetables, fruits, and herbs to be sold to UR Dining Services

The Center for Community Engagement is another on-campus resource that fosters collaborative leadership among students, faculty, staff, and community partners to discover transformative solutions and create equitable social change in the Rochester community and beyond.