The College of Agriculture and Life Sciences received a $1.6 million gift from Roger and Connie Underwood in 2005 to create the ISU Agricultural Entrepreneurship Initiative.

The initiative began as an internship program for the College of Agriculture, but has expanded into a full service for students with an interest in or knack for entrepreneurship.

The Agricultural Entrepreneurship Initiative offices are centrally located on campus and are a part of the College of Agriculture in Curtiss Hall, making them easily accessible to all ISU students. The central location allows the initiative to stay in the loop of all the day-to-day activity on campus.

The initiative is not limited to students in the College of Agriculture. Students from the College of Business and College of Engineering have been and are involved with the Agricultural Entrepreneurship Initiative, said Carly Cummings, Agricultural Entrepreneurship Initiative program assistant.

The main goal of the initiative is to incubate the ideas of young entrepreneurs to help them develop their ideas into a specific product or even a fully functional business. The initiative offers different ways students can expand their ideas to achieve their entrepreneurial goals.

One of the programs the initiative offers is the weekly student incubators where students can collaborate with each other and mentors to expand upon or improve their ideas, Cummings said.

The incubator sessions are extremely beneficial because they coincide with the value the younger generation of entrepreneurs has, which is helping one another succeed by bringing aspiring and existing entrepreneurs together to collaborate, said Kevin Kimle, director of the Agricultural Entrepreneurship Initiative.

By fostering students’ creativity, the initiative is one step closer to achieving its goal of helping ISU students strengthen their entrepreneurial skills that will contribute to the economies of Iowa, the United States and even the world.

The incubators are just one facet of the initiative. The program also offers roundtable events, interactive panels and classes, industry tours, innovation competitions, summer internships and more.

The roundtable events and industry tours are a way for students to be introduced to the program.

“My initial interest in the program was piqued after attending the spring and fall 2013 entrepreneur roundtable events,” said Ryan Fischer, senior in agricultural business and member of the Agricultural Entrepreneurship Initiative student advisory team.

At the roundtables, local entrepreneurs can discuss their entrepreneurial experiences with students, giving them insight into the real life of an entrepreneur. These events are open to all students who are interested.

Attending events and being a part of the program can help students realize that being an entrepreneur is an actual career path instead of an ambiguous goal or dream, Kimle said.

To do this, the mentors help students learn “entrepreneurial life skills” like communication, critical thinking, asking the right questions and questioning the way the world works, Kimle said.

Students can partake in interactive classes that allow them to travel and develop real business plans for companies. Economics 334, among other classes, allow students to create business plans while learning from Kimle and other professors about how to grow an idea from intangible to tangible.

The program also offers opportunities for travel. This semester, a group of students will travel to Brazil to help in a business proposal for Rembrandt Foods, an agriculture business that originated in Iowa.

The trips allow students to apply what they have learned and are learning in the classroom to the real world, showing them how to adapt to various situations without getting discouraged, said Natalie Witschorik, senior in agriculture business and international agriculture.

Both Witschorik and Fischer have gotten the chance to travel as members of the program. Witschorik and Fischer have both visited Tanzania, and Witschorik has also been to Ghana

“I could speak at length on how friendly, helpful and influential the staff has been in shaping and guiding my career aspirations. The friends I have made through the program are also inspiring and influential and have become a major part of my adventure at Iowa State,” Fischer said.

The staff has a bright outlook for what the program will continue to accomplish in the future.

The focus right now is to build up the student business incubator, Cummings said.

The incubators and all other programs focus on allowing the student entrepreneur build upon his/her ideas to reach their business goals. Also, participating in the various events and activities gives students experience in entrepreneurialism.

“When people think of agricultural entrepreneurship and where innovation happens, I want Iowa State University and Ames and Iowa to come to the top of the list,” Kimle said.

Upcoming events include an industry tour April 3 and a roundtable event April 9, which are open to all students. Questions can be directed to Carly Cummings at [email protected].