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Innovation and Entrepreneurship

CREATE Program

What is CREATE?

The Carolina Regional Entrepreneurial Albright Team Experience or CREATE is a year-long program for entrepreneurial and leadership development of high school students in North Carolina and university students at NC State that culminates in a state-wide proposal competition. The program is a collaboration between NC State Entrepreneurship and the Shelton Leadership Center.

Professional staff from NC State Entrepreneurship and the Shelton Leadership Center will educate, advise, and mentor NC State students who will provide guiding support to participating high school teams in North Carolina. The culminating state-wide proposal competition will be a large-scale event and invite guests, judges, and speakers of notoriety within the state.

Program Overview

Empowering High School Students

At the high school level, groups of four to five students will form teams and students will be shown how they can use entrepreneurial and leadership skills to better their own communities, work as a team, and develop as leaders.

These teams will be guided by an undergraduate mentor from NC State and meet on a bi-weekly basis. In these meetings, they will explore the entrepreneurial and leadership skills necessary to work together as a team to create a proposal to submit for the pitch competition.

The proposals will be in response to an annual issue to offer students the opportunity to compete more than once and to provide a general coherence to the program overall.

What high school students gain from this experience

  • Understanding of entrepreneurial concepts
  • Team building and leadership skills
  • Access to NC State student mentors

CREATE Mentors

NC State students who want to be program liaisons and mentors to high school students can apply to be a CREATE Mentor. 

In order for students to be CREATE mentors, they will need to enroll in the two courses (two credits in the fall and one credit in the spring.) These courses will cover entrepreneurial concepts, leadership theories, team dynamics, and teaching/facilitating strategies. 

CREATE Mentors will meet with their assigned high school team to facilitate the curriculum and prepare students for the CREATE competition in the spring.

CREATE Course Outcomes

  • Interdisciplinary approach to teaching and advising
  • Facilitation and presentation skills
  • Feedback strategies
  • Understanding of team dynamics

Mentoring Logistics

  • All meetings with high school students will be virtual
  • There is no cost or required transportation.
  • The fall class counts as an Interdisciplinary Perspectives GEP requirement.

Mentorship Benefits to Honors and Scholars Students

For scholars, participation in CREATE would count as a high-impact program and enrollment in the two-credit courses would satisfy a three-credit seminar requirement.

For honors, participating in CREATE with the enrollment in the two courses would satisfy a three-credit seminar requirement.

Mentor Application

Mentor applications are now closed. Please check back in spring 2022.

Other Ways to Participate

If NC State students do not want to or are unable to enroll in the course they have the option of serving on a committee.

Committee Options 

  • Program management 
  • Marketing 
  • Competition logistics and planning 

Contact Info

Haley Huie – hehuie@ncsu.edu
Jenn Fendrich – jmfendri@ncsu.edu
Michael Domeracki – msdomera@ncsu.edu