Lehigh's entrepreneurial culture includes a vast network of partners that not only spans each corner of the university, but extends well into our community. This page serves as an abbreviated roadmap for navigating that entrepreneurial infrastructure.

An interactive tour of our programs and activities is also available for those who want to see firsthand the highly-integrated nature of entrepreneurship at Lehigh.

An Entrepreneurial Mindset
Lehigh is creating a new model for entrepreneurial education that encourages faculty and students alike to explore real opportunities and tackle societal issues. We realize that entrepreneurship encompasses a lot of disciplines and cannot be easily defined, so our focus is on develop an atmosphere in which business, cultural and societal entrepreneurship can equally thrive.

Through research, publishing, conferences and other events, and a variety of business networking services, Lehigh fosters an environment that prepares tomorrow's leaders to meet the challenges of the dynamic global marketplace. It's a commitment that is shared by the university and a growing network of regional partners.

A National Stature
It's why the city of Bethlehem, with the support of Lehigh, has been recognized by CNNMoney as one of the nation's top places to live and launch a business. Likewise, Lehigh and the Southside Bethlehem Keystone Innovation Zone (KIZ) garnered national attention when it earned the Award of Excellence in Partnership Development from the University Economic Development Association.

That extensive, highly-collaborative network of community and organizational partners provides Lehigh, its faculty and students with unlimited opportunities to pursue entrepreneurial endeavors and technology transfer initiatives. And Lehigh's reputation as one of the nation's preeminent research universities gives our community unparalleled access to resources rarely seen in such mid-size areas.

An Integrated Curriculum
Over the past 20 years, there has been a five-fold increase in the amount of programs available to students in universities across the United States. Lehigh has significantly ramped up its entrepreneurial activities as well—we now offer more than 25 programs with an entrepreneurial flare, a range of cross-disciplinary courses and access to both professional entrepreneurs and small business development officials at the university.

Though entrepreneurship extends to each of our four colleges and across our research centers and university offices, its unofficial home is Wilbur Powerhouse. A facility that supplied the university with heat for a century is now home to three of the university's most innovative academic programs: the Integrated Product Development program, the Integrated Business and Engineering honors program, and the Integrated Design Arts Initiative. Lehigh's garage student incubators are also located in the17,000-square-foot powerhouse.

Scaling Up
To many, entrepreneurship is a lifelong pursuit. Leveraging its strength in graduate programs and in faculty with relevant industry experience, Lehigh offers members of the greater community a range of professional development opportunities that include executive training, entrepreneurial networking, and project funding.

It's a multifaceted approach to entrepreneurial training that prepares entrepreneurs and venture capitalists—both at Lehigh and in the local community—with the tools they need to grow. The current array of programs and partnerships ensure that Lehigh offers help and resources for every stage of the entrepreneurial process, from early opportunity idea generation to start-up funding and organizational incubation.

It has been the university's priority to bring all of these resources and creative minds together, to sustain and grow our programs and position Lehigh as successful incubator of entrepreneurial activity.