Values

"Do Good. Do Well."

Entrepreneurs display concern for the good of the larger society in their role, through good work (“do good”), helping others or support of educational, civic, social or charitable activities. They also display organizational or financial success (“do well”) and achieve relative to those in their chosen setting. At the Cook School, these values are the root of our entrepreneurial education and center.

Leadership

National Recognition

The Center and its staff have won over a dozen awards for excellence in education and service to the entrepreneurs, entrepreneurship organizations, and communities.

Winner: National Model Program Award by United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (1995)

Winner: Outstanding Contributions to Advance the Discipline of Entrepreneurship Award from the National Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers (2006)

Diamond in the Rough

Diamond In the Rough is a program that identifies, supports and rewards the most promising student entrepreneurs at Saint Louis University.

About the Program

SLU’s Diamond In the Rough provides training, mentoring and support to freshmen and sophomore students who own and run their own businesses. Diamond in the Rough benefits include:

Getting helped - mentoring & training to help grow your business
Getting access - VIP access to SLU Entrepreneurship activities
Getting promoted - coverage for you and your business in SLU Entrepreneurship Programs, events and media, and promotion to the St. Louis community
Getting referred - Fast track access to investors via the Billiken Angel Network
Getting funding - Each spring, through a competition, one Diamond is selected to receive $5,000 to help grow their business while at SLU

The original Diamond in the Rough was a program developed by Professor Fred Kiesner of Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.

Diamond In the Rough was brought to St. Louis by local entrepreneur Tim Fogerty of Gateway EDI to support and develop practicing student entrepreneurs at SLU.