Bellingham, WA – The NW Innovation Resource Center (NWIRC) is pleased to work with the MBA program in the College of Business and Economics (CBE) at Western Washington University (WWU) to provide students the opportunity for applied experience working with local entrepreneurs. Through this collaborative effort, students will analyze local early-stage businesses and provide feedback in the form of a feasibility analysis.
Craig Dunn, Associate Professor and Associate Dean for Graduate Programs at WWU explains, “Working directly with entrepreneurs and the market provides students with the unique opportunity to apply multiple aspects of their coursework in a meaningful way.”
Students enrolled in the MBA Environmental Management course focus on assessing the impacts of corporate action on the natural environment. Participating companies for this particular project are engaged in the NWIRC’s Accelerator Program, which provides support to local entrepreneurs. Their products include an invention specialized for the raspberry growing industry and a proposal for better utilizing plastics collected from recycling.
Steve Barrett, NWIRC Mentor and WWU MBA alum, is working with the students and entrepreneurs. “As a mentor for the NWIRC, being able to tap the expertise that these students are gaining in the classroom to provide insight and assistance to local entrepreneurs is hugely beneficial. Entrepreneurs are often pressed for time, as well as focused on innovation itself; consequently, work like this often falls by the wayside, so the students really have an opportunity to help with their efforts,” he says.
This partnership provides students with a unique opportunity to participate in innovation throughout the community as well as practical experience with local early-stage companies.
