Research

Entrepreneurship and Innovation

Faculty and students Bellisario College serve as active participants — and leaders — in entrepreneurship and innovation endeavors at Penn State. Specifically, professor Anne Hoag leads the University-wide academic minor and several other Bellisario College faculty members lead overarching efforts like Startup Week, or mentor and collaborate with creators, makers, students and student organizations.

Academic Minor

Student innovators at workEntrepreneurship and Innovation

Skills attributed to entrepreneurial behavior and innovative thinking are beneficial for students in most if not all majors, and are critical to career success in established companies and new organizations to address pressing needs around the globe. This interdisciplinary minor uses problem-based learning and other active learning pedagogies to prepare students to create value and be agents of positive change in their discipline and their careers.

Bellisario College E&I Courses

  • PSU 009 First Year Seminar in Media Entrepreneurship
  • COMM 270 Introduction to Multimedia Production
  • COMM 297 Freelancing in the Digital Economy
  • COMM 361 Entrepreneurial Journalism
  • COMM 362 Podcasting
  • COMM 461 Magazine Writing
  • COMM 461a Digital Magazine Production
  • COMM 493 Entrepreneurship in the Information Age

Bellisario College E&I Faculty

CommVentures

Through the work CommVentures, the Bellisario College will be positioned to become an agent of positive change both in and out of the classroom. The approach is envisioned as a way to build upon the success of Invent Penn State, the groundbreaking initiative founded in 2015 that has allowed the University to put economic advancement and entrepreneurship at the heart of its mission.

With the fund established, grants will be available to support faculty-led endeavors that engage students and provide real-life experiences.

Brad Davis, who earned his journalism degree in 1961, and his wife, Bailey, provided the lead gift for CommVentures — a privately supported fund created to address important societal questions through research and to generate viable business models with the potential to revolutionize modes, methods and the impact of communications. Davis, who earned his Penn State journalism degree in 1961, is the managing partner, with his son, of Ridge Capital Partners LLC. For more than two decades, their private equity firm has looked for opportunities to invest in promising companies.

“The Bellisario College is a natural innovation link within the University and also with external U.S. marketplaces. CommVentures is the ideal entity to promote new communications ideas and technology to these sectors and concurrently motivate students to think out of the box, enhance their educational experience and even possibly gain economic rewards.”

 — Brad Davis ('61)

Innovation Lab

Situated on the ground floor of the Bellisario Media Center, the Innovation Lab represents a central point of emphasis for open, collaborative and entreprenerual efforts designed to provide opportunities for students across all of our communications majors.

The Innovation Lab will be a nexus between new ideas and existing expertise in the Bellisario College as well as a catalyst for enterprises born from our faculty and students ranks. The potential for broad impact already exists in spaces like the Media Effects Research Lab, which develops cutting-edge research on the effects of communication technologies and media psychology; within programs like CommVentures, which generates grants to support faculty products and ventures; and at CommAgency, our student-run media production agency.

Through CommVentures, CommAgency and other signature college initiatives, faculty and students are mastering new technologies and fostering creative storytelling skills — and they are answering important societal questions while generating viable business models with the potential to revolutionize modes, methods, and impacts of communication.

Alumna Mary Meder ('84), the longtime president of Harmelin Media in Philadelphia, created the Mary Meder Innovation Lab Fund to support the efforts of the lab.

Innovator-in-Residence

The Bellisario College Innovator-in-Residence Program brings entrepreneurs and innovators to campus to interactd with faculty and students.

Each Innovator-in-Residence is selected for their expertise in digital media, film, entertainment, journalism, media activism, music, strategic communications or a related field. They teach, help launch in-house media startups, lead media innovation experiments and help faculty and students realize their own media enterprises. They also help keep coursework and curricula cutting-edge for innovation and entrepreneurial approaches.

The program was established in 2018, thanks to support of the Brad and Bailey Davis Media Innovator-in-Residence Fund. 

Penn State Innovation-Related Student Organizations