{"id":18129,"date":"2024-10-02T11:28:25","date_gmt":"2024-10-02T15:28:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/?p=18129"},"modified":"2024-10-07T15:43:47","modified_gmt":"2024-10-07T19:43:47","slug":"elizabethtown-college-dedicates-new-cutting-edge-keen-77-family-business-entrepreneurship-fbe-laboratory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/2024\/10\/02\/elizabethtown-college-dedicates-new-cutting-edge-keen-77-family-business-entrepreneurship-fbe-laboratory\/","title":{"rendered":"Elizabethtown College Dedicates New Cutting-Edge Keen \u201977 Family Business & Entrepreneurship (FBE) Laboratory"},"content":{"rendered":"

(L-R): President Betty Rider, Ava Barton ’27, Billy Valdez ’25, Elizabeth “Bets” Keen ’77, and Sandu Petru in front of the new lab.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

The Elizabethtown College School of Business recently dedicated the new Keen \u201977 Family Business & Entrepreneurship (FBE) Laboratory in Honor of Dr. Petru Sandu on the first floor of the Hoover Center for Business. The FBE Lab serves as an innovative, state-of-the-art space for all students to work on their entrepreneurial and other business projects.<\/span><\/p>\n

A<\/span> dedication ceremony<\/span><\/a> held on Sept. 26 officially opened the space.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cDue to the highly experiential learning nature of entrepreneurship and family business, the need for a dedicated entrepreneurial space has emerged,\u201d Elizabethtown College Professor of Entrepreneurship Sandu Petru said. \u201cThe lab serves not just as a space for entrepreneurial creativity and innovation but also for mentoring and networking.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

The new Family Business & Entrepreneurship Lab is equipped with cutting-edge technology, including electronic glass that instantly switches from clear to frosted.<\/p><\/div>\n

The FBE Lab is equipped with cutting-edge conference room technology, including electronic glass that instantly switches from clear to frosted, and will host mentorship meetings and events to develop student start-up ideas and family business projects. The space will also be utilized by Etown\u2019s FBE Club – a network of students who come from family businesses of their own or who share a passion for entrepreneurship \u2013 to host events such as power lunches, idea pitch competitions, and an entrepreneurship scholarship competition. \"\"\"\"\"\"The High Center for Family Business<\/a> will use the space to conduct its executive peer group meetings.<\/span><\/p>\n

The initial concept of the FBE Lab began in 2018 as a joint effort between the School of Business and the<\/span> High Center for Family Business.<\/span>\u00a0Construction on the space started in May 2024, and it was completed in time for students\u2019 return to campus in the fall.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Lab was made possible thanks to a generous gift from dedicated alumna Elizabeth \u201cBets\u201d Keen \u201977. Bets\u2019 philanthropy also extends through her two scholarships – the Elizabeth A. Keen Entrepreneurship and Family Business Scholarship for students enrolled in the Family Business and Entrepreneurship Minor and the Elizabeth \u201cBets\u201d Keen \u201977 Business Scholarship for students pursuing studies in Business. Keen helped grow her family\u2019s business, Keen Transport, into one of the nation\u2019s largest heavy-haul trucking companies in the U.S.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEntrepreneurship and family businesses are hard,\u201d Keen remarked at the Sept. 26 Dedication Ceremony. \u201cThey often fail because of one key missing factor, which is a business education. Etown gave me the confidence and education to interview my senior year with different corporations on campus and start my career.\u201d<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Keen worked with Sandu on the project and found his energy and his students\u2019 energy inspiring. The lab was named in honor of Sandu and his work to create a vibrant FBE program at Etown for both undergraduate and graduate students.<\/span><\/p>\n

The College has been a long-time advocate of family business and entrepreneurship through various educational offerings and support.<\/span><\/p>\n

Since its founding in 1995, the <\/span>S. Dale High Center for Family Business at Elizabethtown College<\/span> has been dedicated to bringing the best available resources to families in businesses across south central Pennsylvania and beyond through Executive Peer Groups, Ownership Strategic Planning, and the Leadership Speaker Series. The High Center serves over 200 privately-held and family-owned businesses and has become a vital resource for Etown students.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Etown\u2019s<\/span> Business program<\/span><\/a> offers both an Entrepreneurship and Family Business minor and a concentration,\u00a0 which develops the skills students need to lead and perform as a member of a family business and teaches them how to launch new ventures successfully.<\/span> The Elizabethtown College School for Graduate and Professional Studies (SGPS) also launched a<\/span> Family Business and Entrepreneurship graduate certificate<\/span><\/a> in 2022 to foster students\u2019 entrepreneurial spirit.<\/span><\/p>\n

The FBE lab is the next step to fostering the entrepreneurial spirit that lives at Etown. Learn more about the<\/span> School of Business<\/span><\/a> at Etown.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(L-R): President Betty Rider, Ava Barton ’27, Billy Valdez ’25, Elizabeth “Bets” Keen ’77, and Sandu Petru in front of the new lab.\u00a0 The Elizabethtown College School of Business recently dedicated the new Keen \u201977 Family Business & Entrepreneurship (FBE) Laboratory in Honor of Dr. Petru Sandu on the first floor of the Hoover Center […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":154,"featured_media":18131,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1338,775],"tags":[69,2391,2395,1575,2392,740,2393,251,2394],"class_list":["post-18129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academics-and-research","category-campus","tag-business","tag-elizabeth-bets-keen","tag-entrepreneurship","tag-family-business","tag-family-business-and-entrepreneurship","tag-high-center","tag-high-center-for-family-business","tag-s-dale-high-center-for-family-business","tag-sandu-petru","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/154"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18129"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18129\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18194,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18129\/revisions\/18194"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.etown.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}