NSU announces RiverHawk Center for Creativity and Innovation

Northeastern State University announced Oct. 1 the launch of the RiverHawk Center for Creativity and Innovation, to be supported by the College of Business and Technology.

The center will work to give students small business startups through its encouragement of student entrepreneurship and establishment of a business incubator program.

"The RiverHawk Center's mission is to promote imagination and inventiveness among the student body at NSU," said Dr. Ben Ofili, director of the center. "The student business incubator program is one initiative to help selected students with start-up resources to plan, design and implement a small business. The goal is to enable students to launch a business that, moving forward, can thrive on its own."

Students chosen by the RiverHawk Center can receive up to a $5,000 grant to nurture their business ideas. The College of Business and Technology will support the center by providing work space, access to computers, printers, fax machines and other supplies and infrastructure. Faculty of the college will also mentor program candidates.

Funds can be used for travel and materials directly related to the project and may not be used for salary or benefits.

"Students are expected to follow their business plan, which helps guide their progress," said Ofili. "We expect students to have made substantial movement toward their goals by the end of April. They must make a 15-minute presentation to the university cabinet and any other interested parties by that time."

Selected ideas for business models will be announced Nov. 1 and student applications are due Oct. 15. Applications can be downloaded at https://academics.nsuok.edu/businesstechnology.

For more information about the RiverHawk Center for Creativity and Innovation contact the NSU College of Business and Technology at 918-444-2900.