Letter from the Chief Financial Officer

The tagline to any viable and enduring success in the business world, and perhaps any other sphere of life as well, is undoubtedly, "Clear Vision & Discipline." Of course, a myriad of other factors invariably play a role in success, but vision and discipline are the essential and entirely controllable factors that together form the very foundation of success.

The undergraduate entrepreneurship organization at Notre Dame - newly named "The Notre Dame Entrepreneurship Society." has developed a clear vision for how to promote the ideals comprising the concept of Entrepreneurial leadership, which can be found in the subsequent pages of this publication. However, it is more towards the end of increasing the degree to which we exercise financial discipline in the pursuit of our goals that this proposed budget is being presented. In the past, the undergraduate entrepreneurship organization at ND had been severely hamstringed by a lack of financial support for its vision.

The Notre Dame Entrepreneurship Society hopes to provide students of every academic discipline with the opportunity to lead and serve others in an entrepreneurial setting with the guidance and financial support of the Notre Dame Community. With proper funding, each high-caliber event and project may be realized to its full potential, to the benefit of every student and friend of the university involved with the club.

The Entrepreneurship Scoiety provides a comprehensive set of learning experiences for their members: education, high-level dialogue, & practice - in order to effectively promote the values of entrepreneurial leadership across campus. The various events and projects planned for the Fall of 2008 and the Spring of 2009 will be detailed in the pages on the website.

The main events and projects are: E-Treks, trips to entrepreneurial & innovative companies; The Collegiate Entrepreneur Organization Conference, a conference for campus entrepreneurship organizations across the country; CEO Dinners, intimate opportunities to learn from and interact with influential innovators of the business world; Social Entrepreneurship & Consulting, a service-based opportunity to apply business theory to small scale entrepreneurs in the South Bend area; various "Start-ups", including a merchandising company & a portfolio-management group; the Notre Dame Entrepreneurship Conference, a convention designed to promote entrepreneurship & education through dialogue on the national level; and The Notre Dame Business Review Magazine, a publication that will give students the opportunity to engage a broad audience on entrepreneurship.s application at Notre Dame & in the business world.

These high-caliber endeavors will allow the Entrepreneurship Society to proudly represent Notre Dame on the national level, and give students the opportunity to grow as entrepreneurs and leaders, furthering the values espoused by the Notre Dame Entrepreneur in the upcoming academic year.

In Notre Dame,

Don Whitley
Chief Financial Officer, 2008-2009

Did you know?

  • 95% of members place very high emphasis on organizational leadership.

Getting To Know

Michael Streit

Role:
Vice President of Social Entrepreneurship Consulting
Hometown:
Crystal Lake, Illinois
Major:
Economics and Political Science
Contact:
mstreit@nd.edu
Employment:
Global Economics and Policy Intern with the Department of Commerce in Washington D.C.

Why Entrepreneurship Society?

"On a fateful Thursday evening in the computer cluster at Hesburgh Library, Michael's friend Vijen Patel dragged him from there to the Entrepreneurship Society's first meeting. The rest was history. .I believe that the entrepreneurial spirit is incredibly powerful. Entrepreneurship, to me, means stepping away from the traditional ways of doing things. Entrepreneurship means looking at problems creatively, and doing things in ways that no one has ever thought of before. It means taking charge, calling the shots, and answering to no man. This feeling of responsibility for one's own actions and limitless way of looking at how to solve problems is something that transcends business. I was drawn to the Entrepreneurship Society because I felt that the projects and the opportunities to learn did an amazing job of enhancing one's career prospects and developing an innovative mindset."