Center for Innovation & Growth
at Baldwin Wallace University

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Center for Innovation & Growth
at Baldwin Wallace University

Developing the Next Generation of Leaders

About Us

The Center for Innovation & Growth (CIG) is the home for entrepreneurship at Baldwin Wallace University. With a mission to infuse innovation and entrepreneurship campus-wide and contribute to regional economic development, this co-curricular program welcomes students of all majors. The goal of CIG is to develop the next generation of leaders who can start, grow and reinvent things, whether they launch their own businesses or work for established companies.

 

Featured Initiatives


Colloquia: Ratcliffe Student Fellows and Student Athlete Fellows

These seminar programs are open to all majors and provide students the opportunity to develop insights about the entrepreneurial process and think about leadership and innovation guided by integrity. Students learn from, meet with, and develop relationships with successful leaders, innovators and entrepreneurs. Prospective Ratcliffe fellows are nominated for the colloquia by BW faculty, coaches, staff and peers. Upon program completion, fellows can apply to be Growth Practice intern.


CIG Growth Practice

Through the Center’s Growth Practice – a professionally led, student supported consultancy – a team of ten highly trained and competitively selected interns exercise their entrepreneurial mindsets and skillsets by serving on project teams for real world clients. Simply put, the CIG Growth Practice takes a client-focused approach to helping organizations overcome their barriers to growth.

Throughout the internship, students meet and work with experienced innovators and entrepreneurs, while developing project management skills and receiving professional presentation coaching. In CIG’s team based environment, the primary role of the interns is to conduct both secondary market research and primary market research using Voice of the Customer methodology. The interns, with support from a faculty project manager, create and deliver presentations for clients outlining research findings and strategic options.

Since 2012, The Philip E. & Carole R. Ratcliffe Foundation has generously provided funding for the Growth Practice Internship.  What the Ratcliffe Foundation makes possible for the Growth Practice interns results in a profound impact on their lives – positioning each for professional and personal success.