Babson Participates in U.S. Department of State E-Mentors Corps to Support Aspiring and Emerging Entrepreneurs Around the World

WELLESLEY, Mass., Aug. 20 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Babson College is among the participants in the U.S. Department of State's E-Mentors Corps that is designed to support aspiring and emerging entrepreneurs around the world.

According to the Department of State, "The E-Mentor Corps will call on business leaders and proven entrepreneurs in the United States and overseas (including the delegates at the Summit) to serve as E-Mentors to aspiring and emerging entrepreneurs around the world. Studies indicate that mentorship is vital to entrepreneurs' ability to be successful. The E-Mentor Corps will help to provide mentorship and in the process advance entrepreneurship, innovation and economic opportunity around the world.

E-Mentors will commit to provide guidance, insights and support to mentees for at least several hours per month for at least 3 months - via e-mail, telephone, video conference and other means of communication. It is hoped that many of these connections will spawn longer-term collaboration.

The Department of State will encourage mentors and mentees to connect through any number of channels and mechanisms. To facilitate connection, the Department of State has partnered with three platforms which will serve as options for mentor and mentee connection: Imagine-Network.org, Ning and LinkedIn.

The Department of State has received Statements of Intent from leading U.S. organizations signifying their commitment to go out to their networks to ask them to serve as E-Mentors: The Kauffmann Foundation and Global Entrepreneurship Week, Young Presidents' Organization (YPO), Endeavor, Techwadi, Intel, IBM, Ernst & Young, Financial Services Volunteer Corps, TechStars, Babson College, Global Business School Network and Businesses for Diplomatic Action. In addition, we will work with our extensive global network of Alumni from ECA exchange programs to include them, both as mentors and mentees.

The E-Mentor Corps will serve as a key component of the Corps of Business Volunteers that the President announced in his Cairo speech and the Virtual Global Network for Entrepreneurs that Secretary Clinton announced in her November 2009 Forum for the Future Speech in Morocco. It will advance entrepreneurship around the world and it will forge and deepen ties between entrepreneurs in the United States and entrepreneurs around the globe."

View Secretary Clinton's video remarks about the Corps during her closing remarks at the Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship: http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2010/04/140968.htm.

Babson College in Wellesley, Mass., is recognized internationally as a leader in entrepreneurial management education. Babson grants BS degrees through its innovative undergraduate program, and grants MBA and custom MS and MBA degrees through the F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson College. Babson Executive Education offers executive development programs to experienced managers worldwide. For information, visit www.babson.edu.

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SOURCE Babson College