March 16, 2009

Wayne State cultivates success of student entrepreneur with $90,000 Community Foundation grant to School of Business Administration

The Wayne State University School of Business Administration received a $90,000 grant from the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan to administer the Adams Entrepreneurship Fellowship program. The fellowship recipient will work closely with an entrepreneur for one year, assessing new business ventures and taking part in the management of an entrepreneur-established firm. The fellow, chosen from students or alumni of the Wayne State MBA program, will earn a $70,000 salary and benefits during his or her year in the program.

This is the fourth consecutive year that the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan awarded the Adams Fund grant to the School of Business Administration in support of this program. The program is administered by Terry Cross, an entrepreneur and Executive in Residence for Entrepreneurship at the School of Business Administration.

"I am very excited that Wayne's School of Business Administration has been selected once again as a recipient of the Adams Fund grant," said Cross. "We are indebted to the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan for this wonderful opportunity. The person selected as the fellow will have a chance to work one-on-one with an experienced entrepreneur for a year and will gain significant practical experience and knowledge. This fits in well with our new initiatives in entrepreneurship."

Scott Jones was the Adams fellow for 2008. Jones was involved in completing the commercialization of an antenna technology with Monarch Antenna, a spin-off of Delphi Technologies, Inc. Former Adams fellow Antonio Luck was involved in the successful launch of Monarch Antenna in 2007. In 2006, Adams fellow Alain R. Piette worked on the start-up company SpaceForm, Inc., and he is now president of the company. SpaceForm is headquartered in TechTown, Wayne State's urban research and technology park located in Detroit's New Center area.

Applications are being accepted from current and entering students or alumni of the Wayne State MBA program. The application deadline is April 27, 2009. An application and guidelines can be downloaded from www.business.wayne.edu. Questions can be sent to adamsquestions@wayne.edu.

Wayne State University is a premier research institution of higher education offering more than 350 academic degree programs through 13 schools and colleges to more than 31,000 students.

The School of Business Administration at Wayne State University has graduated more than 30,000 business and community professionals since its founding in 1946 and continues to provide quality business education through AACSB accredited business degree programs.

The Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan, founded in 1984, is a permanent community endowment built by gifts from thousands of individuals and organizations committed to the future of southeast Michigan. The Community Foundation works to improve the region's quality of life by connecting those who care with causes that matter. The Community Foundation supports a wide variety of activities benefiting education, arts and culture, health, human services, community development and civic affairs. The Foundation has assets of more than $595 million and, since its inception, has distributed more than $280 million through more than 28,000 grants to nonprofit organizations throughout Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Monroe, Washtenaw, St. Clair and Livingston counties.