Building a business mindset at Mohawk College
No matter one’s job title, sector or career stage, thinking like an entrepreneur is critical to success. Mohawk College is teaching its learners to seek innovation, adapt to everpresent change, recognize and capitalize on opportunities to progress and grow, and learn from setbacks.
The latest edition of the college’s Momentum magazine highlights Mohawk’s focus on embedding entrepreneurialism into all its student learning. Mohawk applies this focus with a broad lens. Beyond the skills needed by those launching or scaling businesses, an entrepreneurial mindset within an existing organization — intrapreneurialism — is also an in-demand skill.
Mohawk’s commitment on this front is key to its mandate to build a futureready workforce by preparing learners for a marketplace that is dynamic and fluid. Graduates are prepared to launch a business, undertake a side hustle to boost income, or apply innovation and change leadership as an employee.
Momentum’s cover story showcases the multi-layered activities of the Centre for Entrepreneurship, Mohawk’s hub dedicated to entrepreneurship, intrapreneurship and small business.
“People are very keen to develop this expertise because I think there is a general understanding that many more people are going to find they need or want to work for themselves,” says Ryan Anderson, Associate Dean of Business and the Centre for Entrepreneurship.
The centre, founded in late 2020, brings the work of SURGE, the college’s startup incubator, and three entrepreneurship micro-centres under one roof. It amplifies an existing strong spirit of entrepreneurship at Mohawk, where at last count, there were almost 100 courses geared toward the subject. SURGE has supported the launch of 42 student-run businesses since 2018.
This edition of Momentum features great stories of student entrepreneurs. Civil engineering technology student James Kretz has taken the skills he’s acquired as an applied research assistant in building and construction sciences to soar to new heights with his own drone business.
And television and communications media student Geet Chahil is ready to take his video production company to the next level after working with a SURGE mentor.
The issue also shares several stories of successful entrepreneurial alumni, including a continuing education graduate who launched a tea sommelier venture, a woman who has operated an electrical contracting business for 20 years, and international students who have overcome steep odds to launch their own businesses.
“I think there has been a cultural shift around entrepreneurship so it really makes sense for Mohawk to integrate these skills into the education it provides,” says Katie Cyr, owner of Monarch Tea Co.
The magazine also showcases a Mohawk alumnus Stephen Aikman, whose business career has led to multi-million-dollar success and Lisa Syms, who studied accessible media production and found that she could choose a path to entrepreneurship in her own business or within an organization.
Other stories highlight the work Mohawk faculty and students are doing with LiONS LAIR pitch competition for entrepreneurs as they navigate the road to commercialization, and the innovative Fit to Pitch competition in health, wellness and fitness that is setting students on an entrepreneurial path.
This and much more is in the latest edition of Momentum.