Queen’s University was recently recognized for its entrepreneurial and innovative spirit by receiving the Deshpande Symposium Award for The Entrepreneurial University, beating out of hundreds of other institutions across North America.
Founded in 2012 and based in Massachusetts, the Deshpande Symposium on Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Higher Education is an annual conference (held virtually this year) that brings together academics, policy planners, and practitioners to discuss best practices in integrating entrepreneurship throughout their college and university communities.
The Deshpande Symposium Award for The Entrepreneurial University is awarded to an institution that demonstrates excellence in both the curriculum innovation in entrepreneurship and student engagement in entrepreneurship categories.
Fostering entrepreneurship and innovation has always been a key goal at Queen’s, with a variety of academic programs including the Certificate in Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Creativity (CEIC), offered by the Dan School of Drama and Music, and the Smith School of Business’ Master of Management of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (MMIE) program.
"Entrepreneurship has become an important means by which we fulfill our obligations of positive societal impact, to the regional community in which it is embedded, and in global society," says Patrick Deane, Principal and Vice-Chancellor.
Another program at Queen’s that fosters innovation is The Dean’s Changemaker Challenge, introduced by Dean Barbara Crow to challenged Arts and Science students to make a difference. The challenge opens the door to a new hands-on learning opportunity for undergraduate students from across the faculty to collaborate to make meaningful changes that will cultivate entrepreneurship and innovation within the Faculty of Arts and Science.
On top of academic programs, Queen’s also offers a variety of workshops, extra-curricular activities, and funding opportunities focused on uplifting entrepreneurial-minded students, many of which are organized via the Dunin-Deshpande Queen’s Innovation Centre (DDQIC) and Queen’s University’s Partnerships and Innovation (QPI).
Founded in 2012, the DDIQC’s mission is to encourage, enable, and support the innovation activities of students, professors, entrepreneurs, and regional and Canadian companies through incubators, accelerators, workshops, internships, seminars, and business plan competitions. DDIQC was founded by distinguished alumni Andrew Dunin, Sc’83, MBA’87, Anne Dunin, Artsci’83, Gururaj “Desh” Deshpande, PhD’79, and his wife Jaishree Deshpande.
The Deshpande Symposium Award for The Entrepreneurial University encourages the Queen’s community to continue to grow our entrepreneur offerings and foster our students’ innovative minds.
A version of this story originally appeared in the Queen’s Gazette.
