Dear Alumni, Parents, and Friends,
Students are back on campus and we’re excited to kick off a great year of new opportunities for them. I've enjoyed getting to know the enthusiastic group of first year students in my Foundation Seminar entitled, “Recognizing Opportunity, Challenging Convention, and Adopting an Entrepreneurial Mindset to Create Value for the Benefit of Society”. I'm already impressed with students' willingness to participate in spirited class discussions. As I described in a recent talk, Gen Z has the potential to be the most entrepreneurial generation yet, so I’m looking forward to an energetic semester.
You'll find all the good news from the first full year of the Perricelli-Gegnas Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation in our Annual Report, which includes a synopsis of our strategic plan. Please reach out if any of our efforts interest you - we welcome your engagement!
Warmest regards,
Erin Jablonski
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The Center serves as a catalyst to help students develop an entrepreneurial mindset - one that is curious, resourceful, resilient, and solutions-focused - so that they are equipped with versatile skills that enhance their ability to navigate complex problems and transform challenges into opportunities.
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PGCEI offers an opportunity for Bucknellian-founded early stage companies to hire talented students for short-term, paid professional assignments through Parker Dewey micro-internships. These experiences are designed to pair eager students who want to engage in the start-up space with Bucknellians seeking project work for their venture.
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Student Spotlight
Katie Raso ‘28 became a PGCEI Student Ambassador early in her first year at Bucknell and continues to have a significant impact on the entrepreneurship & innovation ecosystem on campus. Last spring Katie spent hours at admissions events, telling prospective and incoming students and their families all about E&I efforts at Bucknell. She took on the challenge of reorganizing and rebranding the Entrepreneurship & Innovation Society, and is in leadership role in the E&I Affinity House this year. Katie even organized a large group of students to meet with Kevin O’Leary before his talk and got him to autograph a life-size cutout to decorate the wall of the Student Ambassadors' office. Katie's story was recently featured in the Bucknell magazine. Congratulations Katie!
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The Sherrick Award for Entrepreneurial Endeavors, funded by the Sherrick Family Fund for Entrepreneurship & Innovation, supports Bucknell students developing new ventures. During the summer, awardees can refine their venture concepts through technical improvements or market research. Both for-profit and non-profit projects are eligible, with awards preferentially granted to those demonstrating significant market potential or social impact. This summer, two student founders received Sherrick Awards, Donovan Coleman '27, computer science & engineering and management, and Farhaj Shahid '26, computer science. Like many founders with nascent ventures, Donovan Coleman learned throughout the development process and pivoted his design for Halobot, a good-habit forming AI assistant designed to improve mental wellbeing through gamification and positive reinforcement. Drawing on his own experiences as an international student studying for the Cambridge exams, Farhaj Shahid built more features for Faazil, a platform that bundles smart study tools and personalized guidance to allow users to achieve their academic goals.
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(Med)Tech Entrepreneurial Fellows Program, Demo Day, June 14 in Philadelphia
The (Med)Tech Entrepreneur Fellows Program, a 4-week intensive experience led by PGCEI Faculty Fellows Charles Kim and Bill Meek, featured insightful discussions with thought leaders and industry experts in data and AI, software and app development, innovations in medical technology and much more. Student participants had the opportunity to present what they worked on to a panel of experts and make meaningful connections with alumni.
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Students and alumni engage during the (Med)Tech Entrepreneurial Fellows Program Demo Day. Thank you to our expert panelists, including Adam Glasofer '99, Chad Hellmann '92, and Paden Troxell '15, M'17, and to Scott Perricelli '94, P'25, and LLR Partners for hosting our culminating event!
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FALL SEMESTER | Fall Founders Speaker Series (bi-weekly, Tuesdays@noon)
September 22-26: Innovator-in-Residence | Fred Thomas of HP | The Craft of Becoming an Inventor
October 23: Workshop | Monica Laurence of The Mavericks Game | Going the Distance - Stepping Into Your Power as an Entrepreneur
November 10-14: Entrepreneur-in-Residence | Cristiano Bierrenbach of Heritage Auctions
November 19: Hearts of Glass documentary screening and director's panel | Campus Theatre
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SPRING SEMESTER | Spring Sprints Spreaker Series (bi-weekly, Tuesdays@noon)
February 2-6: Arts/Nonprofit Leader-in-Residence | Steve Bass, formerly of Oregon Public Broadcasting
February 6: Workshop | Cultivating the Entrepreneurial Mindset in Nonprofits & the Arts
April 13: BizPitch
April 17: Annual Centers Summit (Denver)
June 13: Demo Day (Philadelphia, tentative)
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We are seeking panelists and participants for the February 6, 2026 Workshop
Cultivating the Entrepreneurial Mindset in Nonprofits & the Arts.
Please let us know if you are interested in attending or presenting.
Inquiries can be directed to PGCEI Faculty Fellow Emily Martin at pgcei@bucknell.edu.
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Like any start-up, the PGCEI team is always working on new initiatives and continuously improving the services we offer. "Operations" is a list of the activities we are regularly revisiting - what we consider our "must dos" with a focus on benefiting our current students. Within "Aspirations" we're projecting our ideal future state, where we have the space and financial resources to help our young alumni work on their ventures for at least another year and be well positioned to launch. And for a sense of what is on our radar, or soon to be introduced in collaboration with other Bucknellians, see our "Explorations". All of these undertakings rely on your engagement - please reach out if you see any that interest you!
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Alumni Marketplace Directory • Annual Report • BizPitch • Blog | Social Media | Website • Bucknell Entrepreneurship Network (LinkedIn) • Campus Shop @417 Market St. • Coaching | Mentorship • Co-curricular Transcript • Design-Build Projects • E&I Society & Affinity House @400 St. George St. • Idea Consultation • Media Training | Pitching Workshops • Quarterly Newsletter • Seed Funding Awards • Sherrick (Summer) Awards • Start-up Micro-internships • Student Ambassadors
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• Bucknell Venture Fund
• Living|Learning|Working Incubator
• Creative Enterprises Graduate Program
• MedTech Innovations Graduate Program
• Real Estate Investment Program
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• Alumni Angel Advisors & Investors Network
• "Built by Bison” Podcast (Alex Marx '25 & Michael Dermer '90, The Lonely Entrepreneur)
• Eliminating Trapped Grass & Introducing Distributed Agriculture - Campus Projects
• Entrepreneurship through Acquisition Network
• Visiting Ventures - Experiential Learning Trips
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Your support makes this work possible. Please consider making a gift that will enhance opportunities for students to pursue their passions.
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Bucknell University
One Dent Drive | Lewisburg, PA 17837 US
You've received this as a result of your affiliation with Bucknell University.
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