Articles

NDSU SODAA students apply what they learned in the classroom towards a project that impacts their community. Meet our 2021 Fellows.

Christel is the first NDSU ever selected for a Techstars program and the second company from Fargo to receive the honor.

Ideas Research Workshop Featuring Dr. Jan Pfister The incredible innovation that occurs in our capitalist system has benefited our society in a plethora of ways, such as increasing connection, efficiency, and comfort. Yet according to...

The entrepreneurs from Innovate ND shared stories of innovation happening in real time. Through their ups and downs, they have managed to make something that can help people. Helping coaches find good student-athletes, creating virtual reality experiences to help with career-finding, and surveying roads with drone technology are all very different innovations.

North Dakota’s first-ever Innovation Day was a celebration of student entrepreneurs and innovation happening across the state. One portion of the event focused on a nationwide competition called Innovation Challenge. Read about the winners and be inspired by their ideas!

On November 19th, as part of Innovation Day 2020, numerous young entrepreneurs participated in the Nice Ideas Showcase. And they seriously took the term young entrepreneurs to a new level. I’m not talking about entrepreneurs in their 20s. I’m not talking about entrepreneurs in college. This event showcased the entrepreneurial ideas of high school students! That’s right, at the age when most of our biggest concern was getting a romantic partner, these young entrepreneurs were working to make a real change in their communities.

As part of the Nice Leap program, put on by The Nice Center, a handful of NDSU students, faculty, and community members each founded an idea or project and planned to make it a reality over the next few months.

After earning a PhD in cereal chemistry and plant breeding from NDSU in 1967, Villegas and her colleague, Dr. Surinder Vasal, worked tirelessly to produce and analyze germplasm (the tissue that contains a plant’s genetic information), processing up to 25,000 samples a year. Their research enabled them to breed critical amino acids into maize without sacrificing nutritional value or yield, a feat no other scientist before them had been able to achieve.

After high school, she began college in Jamestown, ND with 17 of her 47 high school classmates; it felt like high school, part two. Longing for a more expansive experience, Rebecca transferred to NDSU where she began her studies in Interior Design before pivoting to Business Administration. But after graduating, Rebecca lacked clarity around what she wanted to do. For five years she did the ladder-climbing she thought was imperative to her career. But she realized, “I can’t do this for the rest of my life. There is a part of my soul that is not on fire enough to do this every day.”

“Entrepreneurs continually grow and shift. If you have that foundation, you will succeed no matter what is happening.” With Jennifer's ability to learn and grow, she is now turning away more business than she takes in and has launched hundreds of New York Times bestsellers.