Overview:
Experience Ventures, powered by the Hunter Hub for Entrepreneurial Thinking at the University of Calgary, enables students to make an impact alongside real-world innovators through entrepreneurial thinking placements. Experience Ventures bridges today's needs with tomorrow's challenges, empowering students to develop entrepreneurial thinking skills essential for their future careers.

What is Entrepreneurial Thinking?
Entrepreneurial thinking involves being creative in finding innovative solutions, taking initiative, and exchanging knowledge across disciplines. It is essential for enriching lives and advancing society.

For Students:
Become a Change-Maker!
Experience Ventures creates paid entrepreneurial thinking placements with innovative companies in Canada. Our goal is to inspire your creativity, resiliency, and future vision, helping you seize your future with the right skill set.

For Companies:
Identify Early Talent
For startups and social ventures, identifying the right talent and mindset is a priority. Experience Ventures partners with you to create placements for students from top-ranked colleges and universities. Students are paid through Experience Ventures, while you provide in-kind support such as time or expertise.

Entrepreneurial Thinking Placements:

Hack-a-thon or Tech-a-thon: A one- to two-day event where companies present real-world challenges for students to solve.
Challenges: Multi-week projects where students develop complete solutions to social, business, design, or community challenges.
Projects: Specific projects matched to student talent from various disciplines.
Student-in-Residence: Opportunities for students to work with several companies over a term.
Interdisciplinary Team Projects: Teams of students from different disciplines work on a project for a venture or group of ventures.

Key Skills Developed:
Resiliency: Develop a growth mindset to persevere through challenges.
Opportunity Recognition: Reframe problems as opportunities for innovation.
Action Orientation: Accelerate learning through real-world feedback.
Risk Management: Develop strategies to manage ambiguity.
Systems Thinking/Trans-disciplinary Thinking: Design innovative solutions across traditional boundaries.

Benefits to Companies:

Engage students with minimal impact on your time and resources.
Diversify the talent pool in social impact and tech innovation.
Recruit early talent for your local innovation economy.
Contribute to the success of your campus-linked incubator.
Gain insights and perspectives from students.
Evaluate prospective talent.
Develop your team's managerial skills.

How it Works:

Companies provide in-kind contributions like time, space, equipment, or training.
Students are paid through Experience Ventures, with amounts varying by school and placement type.

Apply Now:

Visit ExperienceVentures.ca or contact individual school partners to get started.

Funded in part by the Government of Canada's Innovative Work-Integrated Learning Initiative.

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  University of Alberta

  Edmonton, Alberta, Canada