UGA Entrepreneurship Program

During the month of May, I had the opportunity to travel with the UGA Entrepreneurship Program housed in the University of Georgia - Terry College of Business to 3 Nordic countries, exploring their innovation ecosystems and startup culture. This Maymester study abroad was an unforgettable experience! We spent our time in Copenhagen, Denmark; Stockholm, Sweden; and Helsinki, Finland, learning under educators from the Stockholm School of Economics and Aalto University as well as many guest lecturers at various company visits. It was a pleasure to study under some of the brightest Nordic minds, and learn how these countries consistently rank in the top 10 for "best places for venture capital funding" in overall startup culture. Our trip, led by Andrew Potter and Donald Chambers, focused on identifying how government, industries, educational institutions, and money intersect to build healthy entrepreneurial ecosystems in these countries. My group and I also spent time developing a solution on how to improve the start-up ecosystem of Portugal and were able to pitch our sodium-ion battery cluster proposal to several Finnish professionals! I will walk away from this experience with a deeper understanding of what forces are at play to create innovation environments, and how to leverage our own ecosystem in the United States to seize opportunities for entrepreneurship. Thank you to all involved!