Wake Forest University announced it has received a transformational $30 million gift from an anonymous donor. The gift will expand the University’s Center for Entrepreneurship and enhance access and opportunities for undergraduate students in the academic program. It is one of the most significant gifts in the University’s history.
The funding will enable Wake Forest to increase the number of experienced entrepreneurship faculty, develop innovative new courses, and fund the construction of state-of-the-art space for the growing program.
With the Center for Entrepreneurship, the University will offer students the opportunity to acquire core entrepreneurial skills, gain insights into new businesses’ legal and financial foundations, and collaborate with seasoned professionals to transform innovative ideas into successful ventures.
Wake Forest’s entrepreneurship program has become more popular in recent years. This fall, over 400 students enrolled in entrepreneurship courses. Wake Forest student startups have been recognized on Shark Tank and featured on Oprah’s Favorite Things list.
Professors at Wake Forest created an award-winning teaching method called IDEATE. This method helps students discover their best entrepreneurial ideas and is becoming a model for other universities nationwide. This gift will enable Wake Forest to add four new full-time professors of practice in the College of Arts and Sciences within the next two years, increasing the availability and number of entrepreneurship offerings for students interested in entrepreneurship across all fields of study.
The initial goal is to hire two faculty to begin teaching in the fall of 2025 and two more to begin in the fall of 2026. According to the donor, this gift was driven by the question:
“What important ideas are we missing by not having more opportunities for students to participate in entrepreneurship classes?”
This program will be able to nearly double the number of course offerings to meet the growing demand while reducing class sizes. Plans also include launching new courses that will expand the scope of entrepreneurship topics. More faculty and smaller classes will create more opportunities for deeper student-faculty mentorship at all program levels.
The gift will also support the University’s effort to expand the classroom, workshop, and collaborative learning spaces available to the program for signature curricular features. These include a home for Deacon Springboard, an early-stage accelerator program, and Startup Lab, a program designed for the next steps in startup development.
Wake Forest’s Center for Entrepreneurship has earned five national awards from organizations such as the United States Association of Small Business and Entrepreneurship (USASBE) and the Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers (GCEC).
1.) Storage Scholars – On October 14, 2022, an estimated 3.4 million viewers tuned into ABC’s Shark Tank to watch two young Wake Foresters – Sam Chason (’20) and Matt Gronberg (’20) – explain Storage Scholars. And after winning funding, the founders were featured on CBS: 2 college friends got a $250,000 ‘Shark Tank’ deal with Mark Cuban for the business they built from their dorm room. Launched in his first year at Wake Forest, Chason’s Storage Scholars business landed him a coveted spot in Winston Starts. This Winston-Salem incubator partners with Wake Forest to build strong companies.
2.) Three Strands Recovery Wear – In their first year at Wake Forest, Leah Wyrick (‘22) was inspired to create a new surgical bra with unique features like drain pocket holders and compression bands after seeing what her mom Nancy went through following a mastectomy. And she shared her story and business idea at a pitch-over-pizza event sponsored by the Center for Entrepreneurship. She was awarded $4,500 in initial funding to help develop the bra. She was the first freshman to be invited into the University’s Startup Lab. Three Strands Recovery Wear was featured on ABC in October 2024 during Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
3.) The Nori Press – WFU college roommates Courtney Toll and Annabel Love created the Nori Press, a lightweight, at-hom,e and travel-ready iron featured in November 2022 on Oprah’s list of Favorite Things. In September 2024, the Nori Press was featured on TODAY.
KEY QUOTES:
“This remarkable support allows us to elevate our Center for Entrepreneurship to new heights, ensuring extraordinary programs and offerings for our students. This gift – and the inspiration it will spark – are vital to shaping the future achievements of students, faculty, staff and alumni.”
“We are profoundly grateful for this gift and the ways in which it will enhance our capacity to educate entrepreneurial leaders of the future.”
- Wake Forest President Susan R. Wente
“This investment will jumpstart our capacity to drive promising entrepreneurial ventures through our nationally acclaimed system and increase the quality and quantity of student startups. The generous gift will further the mission of the entrepreneurship program to foster innovative thinking and develop leaders capable of creating immense economic and societal value.”
- Dan Cohen, the John C. Whitaker Jr. Executive Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship and Professor of Practice
“Wake Forest is committed to educating and inspiring the next generation of entrepreneurs through transformational teaching and experiential learning opportunities. Small classes and meaningful faculty-student engagement are at the heart of a Wake Forest education. This gift supports our Strategic Framework, in particular, our community of learning and builds our capacity to prepare and support the next generation of innovative thinkers.”
- Dean of the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences Jackie Krasas
