Education
The center of innovation
How Peter Rea brings an entrepreneurial mindset to Baldwin-Wallace College
By Patrick Mayock
Smart Business Akron/Canton | September 2007
For many college students, classroom lessons lack substantial
application in the real world. However, at Baldwin-Wallace
College, innovative thinking is allowing undergraduates to use
their newfound knowledge outside the lecture halls.
Under the guidance of Peter Rea, Burton D. Morgan Chair in
Entrepreneurial Studies, the college’s Center for Innovation and
Growth allows passionate students to apply their talents to
regional economic development.
“Course work is foundational,” Rea says. “Ultimately, you
have to learn innovation by doing it.”
The idea for the center emerged in 2005, when Rea and
other faculty members created a speaker series highlighting
the fundamentals of strong business leadership. The series’
success spurred an umbrella organization whose goal was to
foster innovation and growth campuswide and beyond.
Founded in March 2006, CIG has since participated in
numerous projects designed to cultivate economic prosperity
in Northeast Ohio.
“The region’s in need of talent that’s innovative,” Rea says.
“[It] needs some help in taking on projects surrounding economic development.”
In one endeavor, students and faculty are helping seven communities consolidate their fire and emergency medical services into one efficient and cost-effective fire district.
For students whose interests lie beyond the realm of municipal development, the center also oversees the Baldwin-Wallace
College Business Clinic. With the assistance of executive volunteers, students help entrepreneurs and small businesses design more than 100 business plans each year.
In addition to his work at the college, Rea has facilitated
international partnerships between B-W, as well as other universities, and corporations in countries including China,
Japan, Germany, England and Brazil.
“[Innovation will] determine the prosperity of the country,
community or company,” Rea says, citing one of the conclusions of the World Economic Forum of 2006. “There is now a
global hunt on for innovators.”
HOW TO REACH: Baldwin-Wallace College, (440) 826-2900 or www.bw.edu
