Champlain College and Hula pair up to develop a new generation of entrepreneurs

Champlain College and Hula, the Burlington coworking campus and business incubator, are launching a new collaboration next semester that includes a course in entrepreneurship taught in part by visiting startup founders.

Champlain’s Miller Center campus in Burlington is a short drive from Hula.

“I believe we have an opportunity to participate at the forefront of this growing trend that appears to be occurring across the United States, where college campuses are integrating themselves more and more physically with business development,” said Russ Scully, the founder of Hula. said. and a board member of Champlain College.

Alex Hernandez, president of Champlain College, which is focused on preparing students for careers when they graduate, said by working with Hula, he hopes to break down the walls between the workplace and the classroom.

Hernandez and Scully developed the idea for the course.

“I see it as a very symbiotic relationship,” Scully said. “Hula is very focused on workforce development for companies, especially technology companies in the area, and really helping to slow down this brain drain of high school students who end up leaving the area because they can’t get the jobs they want. search.”

Hernandez will co-teach the master class in entrepreneurship at Hula this spring semester with Rob Lair, Hula’s chief executive officer. The course is offered by Champlain’s Skiller School of Business.

Twenty-four students have signed up for the course, which starts January 17.

Among them is Ahmed Adan, a third-year business administration and finance student at Champlain who started Fuay, which he calls a graphic design coding business.

“I’m definitely looking forward to networking opportunities,” Adan said.

Also entered is Wolde North, a fourth-year game business and publishing student at Champlain. He runs the rock climbing club at the college and trains the tour guides.

“I think the main thing I hope to get out of it is just a general understanding of small business opening and just what people think about when they’re doing business,” North said.

Another student taking the course, Olivia Hutchins, is a business administration and digital marketing student at Champlain. She is working on an app that she hopes to have up and running by the time she graduates in May. She is looking forward to building a large network of business contacts through the course as students will be invited to events at Hula.

“Those new connections are going to give us gateways to really learn how to build a business, but also have these connections to just ask questions,” Hutchins said.

The class will bring in founders and entrepreneurs as guest speakers.

“Students are going to be immersed in the Hula community and learn from entrepreneurs,” Hernandez said, adding that students will have the opportunity to take on projects with businesses at Hula.

He said OVR Technology, a company based in Hula that introduced smell to virtual reality, reached out to a group of Champlain students to help him develop its first prototype.

Champlain will install an innovation center project manager at Hula to connect companies at Hula with students at Champlain.

“I think of it like an internship agent within Hula,” Scully said. “Having this project manager or internship agent at Hula allows us to broker these relationships and make it really seamless and easy and efficient for both the employers and the students.”

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