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November 18, 2024
APPLETON – In a downtown area bustling with businesses and entrepreneurs, a new center is now set to foster more of the same.
Lawrence University recently opened its new Business & Entrepreneurship (B&E) Center at 10 W. College Ave..
Located on the second floor of Fox Commons in downtown Appleton, the center includes space for lectures, performances and pitch competitions.
It also features a finance lab for students seeking real-time experience with data analysis and finance terminals.
The opening comes two years after Lawrence launched its business and entrepreneurship major.
15 years in the making
Adam Galambos – Dwight and Marjorie Peterson Professor of Innovation, associate professor of economics and special assistant to the president of Lawrence – is the inaugural director of the B&E Center.
Galambos said though the center is new for the university, it’s the result of a process that started about 15 years ago when Lawrence began to introduce innovation and entrepreneurship curricula.
“We did that at the time because we recognized that while the liberal arts education that we (provide) was propelling students into success later on in life, they could benefit a lot from complementing that with learning about innovation and entrepreneurship in a hands-on way,” he said.
Within five years, Galambos said the university developed and launched a related minor, which quickly became the most popular minor offered at Lawrence.
With so much interest, he said, the business and entrepreneurship major was developed next.
“We’ve been building the curriculum around innovation, entrepreneurship and business for a long time,” Galambos said. “This center is a wonderful culmination of that. It will give us a chance to create a lot more hands-on, experiential learning and curate more connections within the community for our students.”
Galambos said a downtown location for the B&E Center – only three blocks from the main university grounds, and amid the business district – makes sense for students, faculty and community members, with the latter being welcomed to a variety of public events in the space.
“They are connecting to campus in a way that’s really convenient and it feels at home,” he said. “Even though the campus is not that far away, I think many in the community connect more with downtown.”
The Fox Commons development
Galambos said the B&E Center is just one part of the Fox Commons development.
Though still being part of the Lawrence community, he said the development offers university juniors and seniors an opportunity to live in apartment-style residential spaces, giving them more independence and the chance to experience apartment living similar to what might await after they graduate.
As part of City Center Plaza, Galambos said the entire development is being completed by Dark Horse Development and contractors The Boldt Company and Findorff Construction in phases.
The first phase, he said, included 23 residential apartments on the second floor, featuring a mix of two- and four-bedroom apartments with capacity for 86 students.
The second phase is the third-floor renovation, scheduled to open summer of 2025, which Galambos said features 26 residential units and capacity for 88 students.
He said the apartments are administered by Lawrence, and the students remain connected to the campus.
Other features include a Pre-Health commons opening next summer, which Galambos said will provide spaces for collaborative programming on a myriad of health and wellness topics – as well as a demonstration kitchen allowing for cooking demonstrations and collaborative public nutrition programs.
Alongside these Lawrence University directives, he said, will be a number of neighbors and partners, such as Mosaic Family Health, Prevea Health and gener8tor.
The goal, Galambos said, is to foster opportunities for mentoring, collaborative programming and guest lectures to enhance the experience for students in Fox Commons.
Concurrently, he said progress continues on Lawrence’s West Campus four-story development on the 300 block of College Ave. – providing the new home of the Trout Museum of Art on the first floor, academic spaces on the second floor and apartments on the top two floors – which Galambos said will further help to connect the community to the college, and vice versa.
Connecting students and community
Galambos said the university has sought to engage Lawrence alumni throughout the new developments – an increase of communication he hopes will continue.
“It’s a lot easier for people to imagine how we can work together once they see the space,” he said. “They can come in and have a better understanding of what the center actually is and how it can be used.”
Galambos said an upcoming series of events at the B&E Center aims to bring the community together, serving the needs of local entrepreneurs in addition to students.
“The dream for this center is to create a space where we really bring together the campus and the community around needs that are shared and learning that can take place for both,” he said.
Galambos said he hopes this new space and addition will facilitate career exploration opportunities and potential internships for students while also (shining) a well-deserved spotlight on Appleton’s growing business and entrepreneurship community.
He said his even larger hope is for the space to attract talent from around the world to the Appleton area to be community members, employees and new business founders.
Area businesses have expressed great interest and a willingness to engage with Lawrence’s desire to create partnerships, Galambos said, citing startup accelerator gener8tor as a particularly exciting partnership.
“We just started the partnership this (fall) term,” he said. “The expertise and the network that they have – that they are bringing to our students – has been valuable already, and I’m sure will continue to be valuable.”
From larger corporations to local founders in the area, Galambos said businesses of all sizes could prove important partners in delivering career exploration for students.
The B&E Center, he said, could serve as a valuable hub for connecting all manners of expertise, pooling resources and talents for the unforeseeable changes businesses will face.
A community resource
Rather than traditional classes, Galambos said the B&E Center currently hosts co-curricular events, such as panel discussions, workshops and social and networking events where students can complement their classroom learning with more experiential learning.
He said he’s excited to see how the different events serve entrepreneurs, business professionals and the community at large.
“I see these events as being great learning experiences for people from the community and campus, and also an opportunity to meet and create new connections, internships, and ways to engage with campus,” Galambos said.
To learn more, visit lawrence.edu.
