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April
2, 2003
Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania and
La Salle University Launch New Entrepreneurship Program to Promote
High-Tech, Product-Focused Businesses
Undergraduate
and graduate students at La Salle University will have access to
a $10,000 investment to help them develop high-technology, innovation-based,
and product-focused businesses through Tech-Invest, a new entrepreneurship
challenge grant program launched by Ben Franklin Technology Partners
of Southeastern Pennsylvania (BFTP/SEP) and La Salle.
"Ben
Franklin's partnership with La Salle University is consistent with
our mission to develop and support innovative programs that capitalize
on regional strengths such as institutions of higher learning and
the reservoir of human capital that they attract," notes RoseAnn
B. Rosenthal, President and CEO, BFTP/SEP.
"La
Salle is proud to work with our alumni, benefactors and Ben Franklin
to fashion Tech-Invest," said Marsha Timmerman, a professor
in La Salle's Integrated Science, Business and Technology (ISBT)
program. "By combining our respective organizations' entrepreneurial
development resources, we create a well-rounded partnership with
a solid win/win outcome."
Tech-Invest
is the latest addition to BFTP/SEP's strategy to link talent and
resources to promote the growth of the region's knowledge economy.
Other components of BFTP/SEP's efforts in this area include:
-Customized
lectures and special presentations at area colleges and universities;
-Support
for The Wistar Institute's award-winning Biomedical Technician Training
Program;
-Seed
capital and incubation support for CampusPhilly, an initiative dedicated
to attracting students to regional colleges and institutions and
retaining them post graduation;
-Joint
sponsorship of the Venture Internship Program at Muhlenberg College;
-Support
for the development of High Tech High School's entrepreneurial curriculum;
-Co-founder
of the Ben Franklin/ITT Technical Institute Scholarship.
La
Salle University has a long history of administering premier entrepreneurial
programs, including:
-The
University's School of Business Administration (SBA) ran a very
successful Small Business Development Center for nearly three decades.
The Center subsequently merged with Temple University's Center;
-Graduate
assistants have supported neighborhood entrepreneurial and economic
development endeavors since the mid-1990s;
-The
ECommerce Institute was launched in 1999;
-La
Salle's "Entrepreneurship and High Technology Business"
course is specifically designed to teach entrepreneurship from the
technologists' perspective;
-The
three-year-old chapter of Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) promotes
entrepreneurship through special outreach and community education
programs.
The
first recipient of the Tech-Invest challenge grant program is slated
to be announced in early summer 2003.
Ben
Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania is dedicated
to growing the region through science, technology and entrepreneurship.
Now commemorating 20 years of innovation excellence, BFTP/SEP provides
entrepreneurs and established businesses the capital, talent, and
expertise they need to compete. Like its namesake, BFTP/SEP invests
in, builds upon and delivers solutions that grow communities and
create new wealth by supporting today's technological ideas and
tomorrow's scientific discovery.
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