NEWSROOM

OU program pairs students with technologies, mentors

By April Wilkerson, The Journal Record

Editor’s note: This is part of a series of stories on creativity in business, education and the arts in Oklahoma. Oklahoma City will host the World Creativity Forum in November.

NORMAN – After four years of pairing students with mentors and new technologies, the leaders of the Center for the Creation of Economic Wealth took a step back to analyze the program.

They were happy with what they saw.

CCEW is a University of Oklahoma program that pairs students with technologies or business ideas and the serial entrepreneurs or business people to mentor them, with the goal of commercialization.

Since the program started, 122 students have gone through, and they’ve looked at 18 technologies, said Jeff Moore, executive director. Those technologies resulted in three spin-out companies, four licensing agreements and $4 million raised through grants, licensing and other means.

The program is achieving its intent of providing students the network and knowledge from mentors who want to nurture the talents of the next generation of leaders.

“From a student perspective, one of the goals of this program is to create opportunities that keep our best and brightest students in Oklahoma,” Moore said. “Sixty percent of our students did stay and took jobs in the state. That’s a lot, given that these are the best of the best who could go anywhere and do anything.”

The analysis showed a surprising fact as well: About a quarter of those students who stayed ended up starting their own entrepreneurial venture.

“A lot of students have the traditional view of, ‘Go to college, get a degree, get a job and work my way up,’” Moore said. “But their worldview changes after going through the program. It inspires them to think like owners and to consider startups and new businesses as a path to success as well.”

CCEW is greeting the new school year with a couple of pilot projects. One is a Software Business Accelerator, following the same pattern of matching students with mentors and inventors. A software development business can be launched fairly quickly, Moore said, and with low capital. The goal of the program is for the students to launch a new software business by semester’s end. The interdisciplinary team will include students with skills in graphic design, computer science, visual communications and more.

The other pilot project focuses on social entrepreneurship – using the power of commerce and capitalism to address social issues. The goal is to address a particular social issue, such as blindness because of a lack surgery access or improving water quality.

“The first project is working with Dr. Lloyd Hildebrand of the McGee Eye Institute to develop a business around low-cost cataract surgeries,” Moore said. “The focus initially will be in western China with a goal of doing 1 million cataract surgeries by 2015. The team’s goal is to figure out how to make that happen operationally, financially and organizationally.”

Mariana Barrientos, director of programs for CCEW, said working with the students and mentors is gratifying. She went through the program herself, then returned to be on staff after spending time out of state.

“It’s a one-of-a-kind experience,” she said. “The atmosphere of collaboration and fellowship that CCEW fosters is very unique. At the end of the day, it’s a mutual exercise of continued learning while still having a lot of fun.”