Students from all Erie County schools have the opportunity to put their hard-earned skills to work, gaining experience in their field and growing portfolios that will be attractive to future employers. Students can bolster their portfolios by participating in research projects or they can apply for funding for their own projects.
Innovation Beehive Network
The Innovation Beehive Network offers entrepreneurship support services at all of Erie County's universities and through it the Idea Lab at Blasco Library at little to no cost to the entrepreneur. Students are at the core of this network and are employed at each site to carry out these services and gain unique experience. For employment and volunteering opportunities, contact the site of your interest.
Services include:
- Product design and rapid prototyping assistance through Penn State Behrend's Innovation Commons.
- Business planning support through Gannon University's Beehive node. For information, contact Kristen Bires.
- Marketing and branding through Edinboro University's Beehive, the Center for Branding and Strategic Communications. For information, contact Tony Peyronel.
- Business Intelligence support through Mercyhurst University's Beehive node. For information, contact Brad Gleason.
- Open makerspace access at Blasco Library's Idea Lab.
Have questions about any of these services? You can contact Jake Marsh at Penn State Behrend.
Have an idea that you want to pursue as a client of the Beehive Network? Fill out the Innovation Beehive Network's entry form to be connected to all of the Beehive sites.
Quickstarter Teams
Quickstarter is a proven high-throughput, rapid turnaround program that brings teams of Erie County undergraduate students together to help entrepreneurs design and launch successful crowd-funding campaigns through sites such as Kickstarter. In 2014 only 36% of all Kickstarter campaigns met their fundraising goals. However, the success rate of projects meeting their funding goals rises to 90% with application of the Quickstarter method. These projects are fast-paced but brief in duration, providing experience for students without overly disrupting their academic studies.
Students working on Quickstarter campaigns can receive monetary compensation for their time. Quickstarter is looking for students highly skilled in many areas including marketing, art and music production, film and video production, and web design.
For more information, visit the Quickstarter website.