12,000 Ball State alumni currently live in Hamilton County, where Fishers is located. Click here to learn more about Ball State's community engagement initiatives.
Ball State is continuing to spread its wings across the state.
Although the university has had a presence in other cities across Indiana for nearly 20 years, Ball State has recently co-located with Launch Fishers to open its Center for Academic and Economic Innovation just north of Indianapolis.
“Prior, all of our locations were really focused on distance education, primarily graduate work and professional development training. We still do that in our new location, but this one is even more focused because we are co-located with Launch Fishers, which is an entrepreneurial co-working hub,” said Kelly Favory, the director of the center. “Launch [Fishers] has over 600 members and most of them are new startups, so the learning is unsurpassed in what [students] can learn in a really short time, and it’s mutually beneficial because all these companies are all highly scalable, so as they scale up, they need good people.”
Since opening Sept. 30, the center has hosted meetings for Ball State’s Board of Trustees as well as programs for the Fishers community. Additionally, two graduate programs are offered at the center and a third will be added next year.
John Wechsler, the founder and CEO of Launch Fishers, said he has been an entrepreneur for most of his adult life and wanted to create an environment that was hospitable for entrepreneurs and innovators. The partnership, he said, is beneficial for both Ball State and Launch Fishers.
“When you look at our companies getting access to having Ball State students in internships and working with our companies, or Ball State professors that have the potential to work with our companies, that’s a really big thing for our companies,” Wechsler said. “We provide Ball State University access to an entrepreneurial ecosystem with which these students can participate [with] access to internship opportunities.”
In Spring 2016, 19 Ball State students began working with six companies through Launch Fishers. Students had to find a problem within the company, analyze it and present a solution.
Senior entrepreneurial management major Austen Putney coordinated with WorkHere, an app that helps people find jobs. Putney said he did a staffing plan and 45-minute pitch to the company at the end of the semester and left with more than "just experience."
“I was the only one out of my group to get a job and the only one out of our whole major within that whole year who’s gotten a job out of it,” Putney said. “I did marketing at first — now I’m doing business and business sales so they’re actually moving me up. They’re giving me more responsibilities and I’m even working with them next semester for an internship.”
Kyleigh Mazer, another senior entrepreneurial management major in the class, said her experience was insightful and very beneficial. She worked with video game arena SimCave with her class in Fishers, and said the new center will allow for even more collaborative projects like hers.
“I wanted to see the business side of it. How do you turn a video game into a business?” Mazer said. “I was there for the ribbon cutting of the Ball State center afterwards and we got very close with the mayor of Fishers during the process. He was very helpful to us as students and wanted us to get very immersed in the community. It has felt very professional, which I love.”
Doug Harter, assistant principal of Hamilton Southeastern Schools and director of the school’s College and Career Academy, is also working with Ball State and Launch Fishers to offer an entrepreneurship class this summer taught by a Ball State professor for rising or recently graduated seniors. Some students previously interned with the company during the past two summers and said they're now hoping to take the class in Fishers, too.
“Part of my job is to look for internships for our students, but it’s also to increase our dual credit opportunities for our students," Harter said. "The idea is to pair the practical, real-world experience that they’re going to get through an internship with the more theoretical college class in entrepreneurship. We're getting a lot of interest, so I'm confident that this will have a great turnout."
Harter said because Ball State is known for their entrepreneurship program and because they had a space in Launch Fishers, it made perfect sense to choose Ball State as the dual credit university partner.
The class will be offered at Launch Fishers this coming summer in conjunction with the internship program.
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