Entrepreneurship Center at Bunker Hill Community College Wins National Recognition

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Sep 17, 2010, 01:29 ET

BOSTON, Sept. 17 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Community Center for Entrepreneurship at Bunker Community College has been named "People's Choice" by members of the National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship (NACCE), BHCC President Mary L. Fifield announced. The Center's programs employing social networking were among those recognized.

"Connecting with today's Generation Y students requires multiple channels of engagement, and that's what we have created," said Bogusia Wojciechowska, dean of Professional Studies and founder of the College entrepreneurship programs. "Our successful efforts so far have included mentor programs with high school entrepreneurship programs as well as virtual discussion forums with the social networking platforms Facebook and twitter." NACCE has invited Wojciechowska and Erin M. DeCurtis, coordinator of the Community Center for Entrepreneurship, to make presentations on the successful BHCC programs at the 8th Annual NACCE Conference in Orlando, Florida, in October.

The "People's Choice" recognition is for programs BHCC used to win a NACCE "Elevator Grant" contest last year. Descriptions of those programs, and those by other community colleges, have been on a blog the NACCE sponsors. That blog was the basis of the "People's Choice" election. Among entrepreneurs the "elevator pitch" refers to the amount of time an entrepreneur may have to pitch an idea to a customer or funder. With NACCE, the Coleman Foundation each year sponsors an "Elevator Grant" competition, where community colleges pitch ideas for entrepreneurship programs. Through this competition BHCC has won a $7,500 grant from the Coleman Foundation to support BHCC programs.

Bunker Hill Community College is the largest community college in Massachusetts. The College enrolls more than 12,000 students on two campuses and at four satellite locations. BHCC is one of the most diverse institutions of higher education in Massachusetts. Six in ten students are people of color and more than half of BHCC's students are women. The College also enrolls more than 700 international students who come from more than 90 countries and speak 75 different languages.

SOURCE Bunker Hill Community College