Get Involved!
- Make a Difference
- How to Get Involved
- Distance Learning Centers & Local Mentors
- Conference Sessions, Panel Discussions & Networking
- Competition Mentoring, Judging & Sponsorship
- Mentor Venture Capital Fund
- Entrepreneur in Residence Program
- Financial Donations & the Founders Program
- It’s Time to Get Involved!
Make a Difference
Change lives. Stimulate economies of developing nations. Use your knowledge, experience, and resources to help serious students do what you have done – be successful entrepreneurs. Join in with the CIE and get involved!
Our Slogan: “Entrepreneurship – Empowering Students Worldwide”
Our Goal: “Return-ability”
Our Three-Fold Mission: “Provide a practical and theoretical education curriculum, maintain a mentoring network to support students in their entrepreneurial enterprises, and, sponsor annual business plan competitions and conferences to help students solidify their ideas and present them to funding sources.”
How to Get Involved
In addition to your financial support, if you are a “hands on” kind of person in your philanthropic efforts, we have several ways for you to get involved. Your expertise in entrepreneurship makes you a prime candidate to: serve on one of our boards, review business plans, mentor start-ups, network your contacts for support in local and foreign locales, establish locations for our Distance Learning Centers, teach the Distance Learning Curriculum, participate as a sponsor, mentor, judge or panelist in our annual business plan competitions and conference, or join our entrepreneur in residence program. There is so much to do, so let’s explore the opportunities listed below! If you want to Get Involved right now, then click here .
Distance Learning Centers & Local Mentors
Through CD-ROM/Computer based Distance Learning Centers , students who could never afford to attend an expensive distant university can obtain the necessary skills to become small business owners and community leaders. The courses are taught in a “proctored” learning environment. This means that the courses utilize on-site entrepreneurs to present the learning materials. Supplementing the Distance Learning Centers are traveling or video conferenced mentors who provide specialized workshops based on the individual needs of each community. Therefore, classrooms must be secured and proctors found in order to legitimize the courses and provide students an environment where they can be taught, ask questions and receive immediate feedback.
Conference Sessions, Panel Discussions & Networking
By participating in the Annual Business Plan Competition & Conference you, the seasoned entrepreneur, will have the opportunity to advance the vision of CIE through your keynote addresses, panel discussions and successful networking with fellow entrepreneurs. The luncheons, dinners, golf outing and other activities provide a congenial atmosphere for building relationships and creating new and better ways to further the Center’s work. See this years Conference Schedule .
Competition Mentoring, Judging & Sponsorship
The Business Plan Competitions are an integral part of the CIE’s entire entrepreneurial learning process and the capstone practicum exercise. It incorporates all the course work and personal mentoring sessions in which CIE students have participated and provides a venue for them to present viable and sustainable business plans to potential funding entities. As a mentor or judge, you will have the opportunity to provide advice, insights and experiences regarding the different and varied aspects of starting a new business. As a competition sponsor, you can provide the winning prizes for the competition or facilitate the development of new competitions in communities of the Pacific and Asia.
Mentor Venture Capital Fund
From supporter donations, the MVCF board provides grants and loans to BYUH students and alumni for entrepreneurial efforts in their home countries. Several businesses have already been funded since its inception in 2006 and we are very pleased with their progress in becoming sustainable business entities. You can learn how to become a MVCF board member by visiting with JAmes Ritchie our Director at (808) 675-4990.
Entrepreneur in Residence Program
Come and live at BYU Hawai'i! The Entrepreneur in Residence Program is an opportunity for you and your family to have a meaningful, life changing experience on the BYU campus at Laie, Hawai'i . This one year, flexible program could include: professor of entrepreneurship as a member of the school of business faculty, mentor to the on-campus student businesses, advisor to the student business club SIFE, committee member of the annual business plan competition and conference, or specialist for projects of your own creation geared towards your areas of interest and expertise.
Financial Donations & the Founders Program
No endeavor, no matter how worthwhile, can exist very long without financial support. The Willes Center for International Entrepreneurship is very grateful to its benefactors no matter the amount or method of their support. For those entrepreneurs and friends of BYU-Hawai'i who wish to make sustaining contributions to the Center, we recommend the Founders Program . With an initial contribution a Founder can become a Gold, Silver or Bronze member. With a commitment to additional annual contributions a Founder is elevated to the status of a Sustaining Founder. As a Founder you will receive invitations to special entrepreneur conferences, lectures and outings and be one who brings needed resources to new entrepreneurial endeavors.
It’s Time to Get Involved
There is so much that we do and we truly thank you for your interest in getting involved in our efforts. We now invite you to “roll up your sleeves” and jump right in with the rest of us in supporting our wonderful graduates as they return home to build and strengthen their respective communities, one business at a time.
A big “Mahalo” from all of us at the CIE!
Go here, to Get Involved!
