for Innovation and Entrepreneurship
at Davidson College

for Innovation and Entrepreneurship
at Davidson College

Experiential Learning:
Hands-on Experiences for Learners

The Hurt Hub@Davidson is a safe and inclusive space for Davidson College Students who want to take risks and expand the limits of their curiosity by developing  their business, innovation, and entrepreneurship skills. We do this by offering the experiential learning opportunities below to these students who want to hone in on their interests. 

Experiential Opportunities

Supporting Davidson College students and recent alumni by providing hands-on experiences and capital to fuel the expansion of their innovative ideas.

Students and recent alumni compete in our annual spring pitch competition for up to $25,000 in investment in their innovative, for-profit ventures.

Apply to receive funding of up to $10,000 to assist in accelerating your proposed business idea. We are seeking visionary, passionate innovators!
Failing is part of the process! Apply for a grant of up to $1,000 to pursue a creative or innovative idea. Channel your inner Thomas Edison please.

Gig - Hub Program

Gig-Hub is an exchange where Davidson students can engage in paid, short-term, real-world projects with a diverse range of clients: you know, a gig!

Case Competitions

Academic competitions where students strive to develop solutions to business or educational case studies.

Psychology Practicum 291

A 12-week organizational development consulting engagements for local businesses seeking to drive innovation and positive change in their organizations.

The Yoder Fellowship

The Yoder fellowship seeks proposals for projects that have as a significant component the application or development of new processes, products or services with potential for commercialization.

Internship Grants

Found the perfect internship? Request a grant to support Davidson students pursuing unpaid/low-paying internships with entrepreneurial-minded organizations.

overview

Throughout the academic year, the Hurt Hub partners with businesses in hosting case challenges for Davidson students. During these events, the business presents a challenge or opportunity that the company is currently working on. Student teams are then charged with quickly developing a strategy over a couple of hours and presenting it to the company for feedback. At the end of the event, a winner is selected. Past business partners include Amazon, Barings, and Venture for America.

The Hurt Hub and the Psychology Department at Davidson College have formed a partnership to provide 12-week organizational development consulting engagements for local businesses seeking to drive innovation and positive change in their organizations. Under the guidance of Dr. John Kello, Professor Emeritus of Psychology at Davidson and consultant for 50 years, and Liz Brigham, W. Spencer Mitchem Director of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the Hurt Hub, four skilled Davidson Psychology majors form a management consulting team responsible for conducting primary and background research, analyzing findings, and delivering recommendations aligned to client needs and the project scope. Students receive academic credit for their work and a high-impact experiential learning opportunity seldom seen at the undergraduate level. Clients receive fresh perspectives and research-driven recommendations at an affordable cost, and an opportunity to develop a relationship with talented students for future recruiting. 

Working as a Gig-Hub consultant for Reesmarx, [a global recruitment agency with US headquarters in Charlotte], this past spring was incredible! Because I lacked any internship experience prior to working for the Gig-Hub, looking for summer internships proved to be a tedious and fruitless process for most of the year. However, becoming a Gig-Hub consultant allowed me to demonstrate my skills on small projects and prove my potential despite my lack of experience.
Constantine Desjardins '24
Gig-Hub Consultant
This class was truly a hands-on, experiential learning course. As students we were involved in every step of the process. We were a part of the initial intro meeting with the client company, we conducted background research, led interviews with employees from the client company, identified major themes in our findings, analyzed our findings, helped brainstorm recommendations and gave the final presentation to HR leadership of the client company. Though we were led by Dr. Kello and Liz and they helped us work through each step, we were given responsibilities as students. This whole experience and being involved from start to finish gave me insight into what an OD [Organizational Development] consulting gig would look like.
Kendall Bushick '22
Student Consultant
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Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Davidson College

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