Sept. 25, 2012
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Stacia Momburg
805-756-6260; smomburg@calpoly.edu

Three Cal Poly Professors Accepted to
National Coleman Fellows Program

SAN LUIS OBISPO – Three Cal Poly professors representing three of the university’s colleges have been accepted into the Coleman Foundation Faculty Entrepreneurship Fellows program, which brings entrepreneurial education to 16 university and college campuses throughout the U.S. 

Bob Crockett, director of General Engineering in the College of Engineering; Enrica Lovaglio Costello in the Art and Design Department in the College of Liberal Arts; and Umut Toker, City and Regional Planning Department in the College of Architecture and Environmental Design, were selected to participate through the Cal Poly Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship. This marks the first time Cal Poly has been awarded this distinction. 

Cal Poly faculty fellows will develop courses in their academic discipline that advance self-employment and entrepreneurship, guided by Jonathan L. York, associate professor of entrepreneurship and director and founder of the Cal Poly Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship (CIE). 

Faculty fellows are typically professors from outside the business school at their institutions. They develop courses and lead projects in support of entrepreneurship education as a way to inspire students in non-business disciplines gain self-employment skills and experience. 

Participating in this program will help fulfill the Cal Poly Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship’s mission of opening the world of entrepreneurial opportunity to Cal Poly students and faculty members and promoting entrepreneurial activity, scholarship and dialogue across the university, York said. 

Crockett, Lovaglio and Toker will develop and implement their ideas during the 2012-13 academic year by creating new entrepreneurial courses in their discipline, modifying existing courses and/or developing experiential, co-curricular entrepreneurship education programs linking to curricular elements. 

The Cal Poly fellows are expected to participate in programwide activities, including monthly interactive web-enabled meetings, with fellows on other campuses and attend the Collegiate Entrepreneurs Organization Conference Nov. 1-3 in Chicago.

The Cal Poly CIE is intended to open entrepreneurial opportunites to Cal Poly students and faculty members. It promotes entrepreneurial activity, scholarship and dialogue across the university and throughout San Luis Obispo County.

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