“Every engineer and scientist entering the job market today needs to be entrepreneurial, whether or not they plan to start their own business,” says Donna Novitsky, partner at venture capital firm Mohr Davidow Ventures and adjunct professor in the School of Engineering. “It’s no longer an optional job qualification. It’s a ticket to entry in leading companies, even for undergrads.”

Fortunately, one of the world’s most renowned entrepreneurship education programs for engineers exists right here at Stanford. It’s the Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP) in the School of Engineering.

Offering Courses in Technology Entrepreneurship

STVP is a hotbed of entrepreneurial education for engineering and science students. Its courses alone offer practical, hands-on preparation for life in the real world. Just a few examples of this quarter’s thirteen courses include: “High-Technology Entrepreneurship,” “Innovation, Creativity and Change,” and “Biodesign Innovation.”

One of STVP’s most well-known offerings is the Draper, Fisher, Jurvetson Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders Seminar. Provided in partnership with the Business Association of Stanford Engineering Students (BASES), this lecture series features weekly, one-hour presentations during which well-respected Silicon Valley executives offer their advice and experiences. Each lecture is free and open to all students, though those who want to earn course credits must meet specific requirements.

Free Podcasts and Video Clips

Anyone who misses a provocative “Thought Leader” seminar need not despair. Podcasts and short video clips of these presentations and more are available on STVP’s wildly popular entrepreneurship resource website, Educators Corner (http://edcorner.stanford.edu). Featuring titles like, “Five Biggest Mistakes That Entrepreneurs Make” or “Top 10 Things You Must Have to Start a Business,” the site offers the next best thing to sitting across the table from technology’s biggest celebrities for personal advice. The site averages more than 5,000 visitors a day from around the world, and its podcasts regularly reach the Top 20 ranking on iTunes for higher education.

Apply to the Mayfield Fellows Program

The Mayfield Fellows Program (MFP) is a prestigious, nine-month work/study program for exceptional students. The comprehensive program combines an intense sequence of courses on the management of technology ventures, a paid summer internship at a start-up company, and ongoing mentoring and networking activities. Applications are due February 1 each year.

Global Thought Leadership

STVP faculty and scholars have won numerous awards and accolades for their academic research, articles and best-selling business books. STVP also leads annual conferences for entrepreneurship educators and business leaders around the world to share its best practices and facilitate advancements in the field. Textbooks by STVP faculty include Professor Tom Byers’ Technology Ventures, which is so popular at other schools that the first printing of this year’s new edition sold out before his own students could buy copies.

Stanford Engineers Can Have Major World Impact

While entrepreneurship education is a basic necessity for today’s engineers, the faculty and business leaders involved with STVP have even higher aspirations for students. “We believe that Stanford engineering and science students will play a key role in tackling today’s most pressing challenges in the environment, human health and international harmony,” says Tina Seelig, the Chong-Moon Lee Executive Director of STVP. “These will be solved by people who have the entrepreneurial ability to turn problems into opportunities and bring them to market. We exist to prepare students to do that.”