15 years of community bridge building at Dobson-Lagassé Entrepreneurship Centre
The Dobson-Lagassé Entrepreneurship Centre celebrated 15 years of successful operations last night. The Centre is a private business on the campus of Bishop’s University that is focused on promoting and assisting in the teaching of entrepreneurship to BU students while also growing the entrepreneurial spirit in the Eastern Townships and improving the regional economy, in a world where governments of all levels have adopted “entrepreneur” as the buzzword of the day.
“Entrepreneurship is a mindset,” said the centre’s executive director, David Monty. “It is a confidence to act on one’s knowledge.”
Monty described the centre as a bridge between the local business community and the students of the university where both are strengthened by working together. By engaging students from a variety of backgrounds in projects that put them in real-world situations with local businesses over the course of an entire semester, the centre offers students a learning opportunity that cannot exist within the traditional classroom. At the same time, businesses gain from access to a broader resource network through the BU students and alumni, as well as the center’s dedicated team of mentors
According to the executive director, the centre’s model aims to maintain a balance and constant flow of ideas between students, local businesses, and the “grey hairs” of the local business community who serve as the centre’s mentors; those experts who have been through the highs and lows of setting up their own business and lived to tell the tale.
“The whole idea is really simple,” Monty said. “What we’re trying to do is keep people in the region.”
By fostering and supporting those small businesses who have the humility to come and ask for help, the Dobson-Lagassé centre helps to provide an environment in which people don’t take their innovative ideas, and any jobs that might come from them, elsewhere. By the numbers, the centre’s fifteen years works out to 320 workshops and 225 student projects carried out by 72 volunteer mentors and 2,500 students in connection with 856 different local businesses.
In simple terms, he said that the centre is working to develop an “I can do that,” philosophy in the minds of young people who cannot always see the opportunities in their own back yard. By doing that in a way that also helps get start-up businesses to break their own isolation and improve their business skills, everyone wins and the networks on which so much of successful business is built only expand.
One of the most striking things about the not-for-profit centre in light of its successes is the fact that it operates on less than $300,000 per year. Though Monty attributed part of that to the simplicity of the operational model, he emphasized that much is owed to the support of the mentoring network and the alumni community.
“I’m blown away by the support and the desire to help our youth,” the executive director said, citing the willingness of several associated businesses to offer up expertise nearly at the drop of a hat.
Asked about the reasoning behind that support, Monty reflected on a spirit of common understanding among entrepreneurs. “It’s about passion,” he reflected, “an entrepreneur gets kicked in the face, falls down, runs out of money, takes risks; you’ve got to be pretty resilient.”
Calling up his own back- ground, Monty contrasted his academic background as a history major with his long career in the shoe business to point out that entrepreneurship is not limited to business students. Not every arts or sports student can be a star, he pointed out, but those who can take their knowledge and apply it to support themselves can still end up successful in the long run. In a world where many of those graduating from university see themselves in a position where they need to either struggle to find a job or go back to school, entrepreneurship is oft-ignored third option that, while certainly not easy, provides an interesting opportunity to creatively change the way one does things.
Last night’s anniversary cocktail focused on a recognition and celebration of those who have supported the centre and its initiatives over the years. The event followed a daylong “speed coaching” event in which participants had the opportunity to engage in flashconsulting sessions with a range of invited guests on a wide range of topics related to business operations.
More information about the centre and its mission can be found on the centre’s website: www.dobsonlagasse.ca.