UNC faculty entrepreneurship workshop goes international

Published Feb. 12, 2018

As one of the top university business accelerators in North America, Launch Chapel Hill participates in the U.S. Department of State’s Professional Fellows Program, a global exchange program that promotes mutual understanding, enhances leadership and professional skills and builds lasting, sustainable partnerships between emerging leaders from foreign countries and the United States. 

As part of the program, Launch hosted Konstantin Kozlov, who directs an incubation program in Russia at Mari State University for the month of May 2017. While visiting the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, he participated in the Chancellor’s Faculty Entrepreneurship Workshop. The workshop made such an impact on Kozlov, he wanted to work with Launch Director Dina Rousset to create a similar workshop at his home university, where they are 10 to 15 years earlier in the process of developing programs to support innovation and entrepreneurship. 

“We wanted to create a workshop where we could get faculty thinking through how they can move inventions off the shelf and into the world,” says Rousset. “How can we get them to think entrepreneurially?” As a result of their determination and planning, Kozlov and Rousset successfully held UNC-Chapel Hill’s first international faculty entrepreneurship workshop at Mari State University in Yoshkar-Ola, Russia in October 2017. The workshop drew experts from across the country to serve as coaches to 30 faculty members from the university. 

Konstantin Kozlov and Dina Rousset during the UNC Faculty Entrepreneurship Workshop during May 2017 in Chapel Hill.
Dina Rousset (fourth from left) with the team from Mari State University, including Konstantin Kozlov (second from left)
Dina Rousset with traditional dancers and the local director of arts and culture before an evening presentation to a group of women entrepreneurs in Ardatov.
Dina Rousset (second from right) with the dean of the business school (far left) at Synergy University.
Dina Rousset outside Skolkovo Institue, Russia's city of the future.
Dina Rousset and Konstantin Kozlov after presentation to a business English class.

“Top entrepreneurs from around Russia were able to attend and serve as speakers, sharing best practices with participants,” says Rousset. “From Siberia to Moscow, the workshop drew emerging leaders from accelerator programs around the country to participate as coaches and invest in the workshop.”

The initial faculty entrepreneurship workshop in Chapel Hill, which inspired Kozlov and Rousset to bring the concept to Russia, was hosted by Innovate Carolina. The workshop teaches UNC faculty the skills they need to be successful entrepreneurs by placing them into teams that receive in-depth coaching and mentorship from entrepreneurial educators and industry professionals.

As a result of the new workshop in Russia, Mari State University faculty are equipped with strategies and best practices for infusing innovation and entrepreneurship into their classrooms and communities. The workshop proved to be a game changer for the university, with faculty expressing interest in continuing to host the workshop, potentially with UNC.

In addition to the workshop, Rousset and Kozlov were able to travel to other regions of Russia, hosting various innovation and entrepreneurship events, including a two-day youth forum in Yofhkar-Ola. The forum attracted more than 100 students and faculty members and brought in elements of the Carolina Challenge.

Dina Rousset, Associate Director, UNC Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, and Program Manager of Launch Chapel Hill
"This experience is not only important for foreign relations. Our team working hand in hand with their team on a common project that brings in that entrepreneurial mindset and skillset, which is so crucial for our students going forward.”

On the heels of the workshop and youth forum, Rousset traveled to Saransk, Russia for a roundtable on women’s entrepreneurship, attracting more than 25 women who own small businesses. Rousset also met with youth entrepreneurs at various accelerator and incubator groups. For example, she visited Mircale Farm in Ardatov, which promotes agritourism, and through her visit provided the opportunity for women from around the region and the local village to meet and exchange entrepreneurial ideas.

Dina Rousset (second from right) and Konstantin Kozlov (right) with the dean of the business school (far left) at Synergy University

The final leg of the trip was Moscow, where Rousset and Kozlov were able to present at Synergy University, Russia’s largest university and visit Skolkovo Institute. They delivered presentations on incubation and acceleration as well as how to pitch an idea.

Rousset is ready to take the Faculty Entrepreneurship Workshop on the road again this year and is looking to work with both students and faculty for the U.S. Department of State’s Professional Fellows Program.

“This experience is not only important for foreign relations,” says Rousset. “Our team working hand in hand with their team on a common project that brings in that entrepreneurial mindset and skillset, which is so crucial for our students going forward.”

For more information about the faculty workshop series in Chapel Hill, contact Sheryl Waddell. For more information about the faculty workshop series held in Russia, contact Rousset, who is also Senior Associate Director at the UNC Kenan-Flagler’s Center for Entrepreneurial Studies as well as Director of the Adams Apprenticeship at Carolina.