Creating the Next Generation of Entrepreneurs

Sonoma State University wants to encourage students to turn their ideas into businesses by networking with students at other departments as well as already established entrepreneurs at the school’s newly formed Entrepreneurship Society, the North Bay Business Journal is reporting.

The group, casually known as the “Trep Society,” is part of SSU’s School of Business and Economics and aims to foster connections that will encourage students to start new companies, nonprofits and other initiatives beyond a traditional 9 to 5 job. 

“We want to say ‘What you’re being taught here can fuel your entrepreneurship,” Dr. Kirsten Ely, a professor at the business school and faculty-in-residence at the North Bay iHub at Sonoma Mountain Village, told the Journal.

Dr. Richard Senghas, vice chair of the faculty at Sonoma State with a history of involvement in Silicon Valley startups said that he hopes the new initiative will encourage students to reach beyond their departments and discuss great ideas with other entrepreneurially-minded students.

“That’s what entrepreneurial efforts usually do — you have a cluster of people from different areas who know how to make things happen,” he told the Journal. “If they can be linked into the entrepreneur club, they are more likely to succeed.”

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