Motivating, guiding, inciting and inspiring individual students to be innovative and realize their “entrepreneurial ambitions” has been the direction of the Bissett School of Business through the Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Recent Launch Pad Winner and MRU student, Paul Shumlich (Deepwater Farms) and fellow MRU students, Derek Rucki and Stefan Radeta (TLink Golf), JMH New Venture Pitch winners can attest to how MRU provided them the opportunity to pursue their dreams.

A recent article in The Calgary Herald (Sutherland-Smith 2016, February 19, http://calgaryherald.com/business/local-business/students-taking-care-of-business) outlines the program offerings by  post-secondary institutions in the Calgary area and the varied stories of successful student entrepreneurs. As interest in these programs continues to grow, so does the means and ways of supporting the entrepreneur student:

“Mount Royal has a very experiential innovation and entrepreneurship program of nine different courses that force the student to experience entrepreneurship rather than simply study it,” says Ray DePaul, director of the Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at MRU.

“For those passionate students who want to go beyond the classroom we have LaunchPad which gives students an opportunity to launch their venture. While students often get engaged in order to get access to funding — last year we gave over $70,000 in grants — they quickly realize that the true value is in the mentorship and being part of a community of like-minded, driven entrepreneurs.” – Ray DePaul, Director of Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.