Friday, December 5, 2014
Contributed by Heidi Hutchins, MBA who is traveling to South Korea to develop entrepreneurial relations with other universities. GateWay Community College has been growing its entrepreneurship program and has a variety of resources on campus including the Center for Entrepreneurial Innovation; the Maricopa SBDC; and Fahrenheit Labs, a student business incubator.
The Seoul National University of Science and Technology has been steadily becoming more well-known and well-respected. In a recent ranking of universities in South Korea, the Seoul National University scored tops marks in every area except Globalization. Therefore, they are motivated to increase international partnerships to become the top university. They currently have partnerships with Pamona College in California, Grand Valley in Michigan, and Tashbent University of Information Technology in in Uzbekistan.
The Seoul National University of Science and Technology is called Seoul Tech for short.
While in Seoul, I was invited to attend the Asia Conference on Entrepreneurship, which coincided with Global Entrepreneurship Week. Chaewon Lee, PhD, Associate Professor in the Department of Business Administration at SeoulTech, was one of the conference presenters at the conference and invited me to attend. At the Conference, it was again emphasized that Experiential Learning is a critical aspect of entrepreneurship education. One presenter also discussed how they had successfully used student process improvement teams at their university.
The Convention was held in the Gangnam district in Seoul, as made famous by the “Gangnam Style” song by Psy.
The Seoul National University of Science and Technology has a Business Incubator, where I had a chance to meet several entrepreneurs.
Professor Shin set up a meeting with Dong Hwan Kim, PhD, the Dean of the Foundation for Research and Business. The Foundation is a separate organization that maintains its own funding, but works closely with the university. The Foundation has done a tremendous job of working with businesses to do research and have sold quite a bit of intellectual property to companies. Approximately two-thirds of the faculty work with companies on research.
Professor Cho, The Division Chair of Business and Technology said he will try to set aside funds and hopes to visit GateWay Community College next Fall. He will try to bring a few other faculty members and students on the trip.
Professor Lee’s position is dedicated to fostering relationships between the academic side of the Business and Technology Division and private corporations.