OU center seeking interns
Tulsa World (OK)
June 16, 2006
Author: LAURIE WINSLOW World Staff Writer
Selected students will engage in real-world technological enterprise.
Eight entrepreneur-minded University of Oklahoma students are being sought for internships at the new Center for the Creation of Economic Wealth.
The CCEW, which operates alongside OU's Office of Technology Development in Norman, will give students opportunities to engage in real-world enterprise and help move technology developed at OU into the marketplace.
Although the CCEW is just kicking off, it has been in the planning stages since last summer, said Skip Porter, university vice president for Technology Development.
The center aims to tap into the energy and intellect of students who have an interest in learning about entrepreneurship and creating wealth, Porter said Thursday during a conference call.
Through internship and mentor-in-residence programs, students at CCEW will participate in entrepreneurial outreach activities and the development of actual start-up companies.
"It's going to help us at the university and the Office of Technology assess and evaluate a growing intellectual portfolio, and at the same time it will instruct and nurture the learning process of our top students," Porter said.
Students have until June 30 to apply for the fall semester internship program, the center's first.
CCEW is looking for current OU undergraduate and graduate students of all types to participate. Students who attend the OU-Tulsa campus also can apply.
"We are trying to draw the best and brightest regardless of academic discipline," said Daniel Pullin, CCEW's executive director, also in the phone conference call.
Those selected will receive a stipend. Other internships will be available in the spring and summer of 2007.
"Our overarching goal is to broaden exposure to the entrepreneurial process," Pullin said.
The center will be looking for applicants who have an intellectual curiosity about the world and the unknown as well as an insatiable appetite to learn and achieve, he said.
"Additionally, since our interns will probably be younger in age . . . it will be important that these interns have maturity beyond their years -- someone who can interact in an articulate, cogent way with not only inventors of the intellectual property but outside resources and experts we would bring into the center as mentors," Pullin said.
Applicants also need a strong work ethic, displaying the tireless effort of entrepreneurs who don't know the meaning of a 9-to-5 job, Pullin added.
CCEW's internship is the first step in a long-term plan that calls for building an "entrepreneurial village" that would house both the Office of Technology Development and CCEW, along with visiting mentors. The village also would include an incubator where spin-off companies could be nurtured, Porter said.
He envisions the village occupying a square block, possibly on the OU-Norman campus.
"I've got two or three spots in mind but do not have a commitment for the physical location," he said. "We are assessing where we think it might be."
The village also would be a place where anybody, including state residents interested in learning how their communities can create wealth from technology and knowledge, could drop by and interact with others.
Porter said he is hopeful that the CCEW will generate enough and success that funds from the state and private sector would make it possible to break ground on the village in three years. He envisions a $50 million campaign to help create and sustain such a village.
In the future, the Office of Technology Development also would like to expand on the OU-Tulsa campus by having someone from its office assigned there.
Students interested in learning more can call the CCEW at (405) 325-3800. A downloadable internship application is available atwww.otd.ou.edu/ccew.
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