Southeast's Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship gets $850,000 in grants

After six months of reorganization, the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Southeast Missouri State University is ready to expand its programming.

The center is implementing about $850,000 in grants from the WIRED Initiative of Southeast Missouri and the U.S. Small Business Administration. Most were awarded toward the end of 2009.

The funds will spur three new programs within the center. An administrative assistant and two program coordinators were also hired to support the new responsibilities.

In July, Dr. James Stapleton was named executive director of the reorganized center, which includes the Small Business and Technology Development Center, the Missouri Research Corporation and the Center for Entrepreneurial Studies. The center is affiliated with the university but funded through grants.

The center will received $346,510 in funding from WIRED to continue a professional development program for teachers and start vocational and agriculture programs throughout the region.

The federal grant, $500,000, will start a program to revitalize distressed rural communities.

"So the idea is to get a bunch of activity going in terms of new business development," Stapleton said. The program will include mentoring for high school students and business training for adults.

The three-year grant will focus on four communities each year. He said the center will start with communities in the northern part of its service area, which reaches up to Park Hills and Ste. Genevieve.

A $182,754 grant from WIRED will continue a professional development program that shows teachers how to use activities to inspire high school students to be more enterprising.

"A lot of it is just planting the seed," said Janet Witter, manager of the initiative. The program started in the summer of 2008.

Another $163,756 in WIRED funding will go toward a similar program for vocational students and a program to develop new agriculture practices.

The vocational program will focus on students at technical centers and community colleges, Stapleton said. It will help those students prepare for self employment upon graduation, a valuable skill in the current job market, he said.

"There's probably not enough of that type of training in those programs now," he said.

The agriculture program will include a series of workshops in conjunction with Southeast and University of Missouri Extension Office. It will emphasize new ways to use land and ways to be less dependent on fuel. The workshop will also be developed into a DVD series, he said.

Witter said the new programs will give people tools to stimulate the economy.

"Entrepreneurship, from the very beginning, is something we've wanted to support because of the potential for creating jobs," she said.

abusch@semissourian.com

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