Director's Message
Welcome to Our Winter 2023 Issue!
This issue of The Mindset from Ciocca Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Santa Clara University is centered around the concept of Value Creation, one of the facets of the Entrepreneurial Mindset.
I’ve had my “mind blown” by the apparent capabilities of ChatGPT which provides synthetic “AI” responses to inquiries.
I thought I would pose the question: “What does Value Creation mean in Silicon Valley?” The response: "In Silicon Valley, value creation generally refers to the process of creating economic or social value through innovative technology products, services, or business models.“
That seems pretty reasonable to me, but doesn’t reflect how I think about Value Creation in the context of our work at Santa Clara University. So, I tried again: “What does value creation mean to a Jesuit?” This time, I received: “Value creation is not just about creating economic value, but also about creating social, cultural, and spiritual value for individuals and society as a whole."
This response seems much closer to me to how we encourage students to think of Value Creation! Sure, economic value is important, but that’s not the whole story. Assessing whether we’ve truly created value requires us to not only solve a real problem in an economically sustainable manner but also to ask the tough questions: Did we really improve the lives of others and how do we know? And have we mitigated the unintended consequences of our actions and creations?
This issue is replete with examples of how value creation manifests at Santa Clara University. The Jesuit perspective on value creation is well reflected in our community.
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We hope you enjoy!
Keep reading,
Chris Norris, Executive Director
Ciocca Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship |
Perspectives  | Ciocca Center's Mindset Scholar, Francisca Gelman '25, reflects on her SCU experience as a new freshman and finding a supportive community amongst her fellow Scholars. Read here to find out how this first year program has helped Francisca find new roots and new entrepreneurial skills of approaching the world. |
 | Filip Orth '23 shares his learnings as a business student on how to build personal growth, while still managing that growth in a sustainable and feasible way. Read here to learn how business principles of creating long-term value can give a relevant framework on how to personally advocate for building up our own lives. |
 | Hallie Mullane '23, Program Director at Ciocca Center, recounts her experience and learnings from hosting a team of 20 university leader delegates from Colombia. Read here for a view into the values that drive our Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center and our aspirations for the future of education. |
A Window into BEACH  | BEACH provides an interdisciplinary SCU-wide advisory service for startups of all kinds. The program is crafted as an experiential program that has business and law students working together with alumni mentors and attorneys to help companies while furthering their own education and experience. If you're interested in joining our Fall Cohort, click here to find out more! |
 | Creating an interdisciplinary, hands-on experience is at the heart of why BEACH began. Professor Kumar Sarangee shares how throughout the evolution of BEACH, the program consistently empowers students to interface with real businesses while working with students outside of their prospective schools. Read here to learn more! |
 | Lawyer and BEACH Mentor, Alexandra Saddik '19 JD/MBA, invests her time and commitment to current business and law students to create a safe environment where they can explore what it's like to work in their professions post-college. Read here to capture Alexandra's perspective on how BEACH teaches students that working together is the best path to value creation. |
Broncos, Actually  | Jyotsna Gopinath '19, Innovation Analyst at Fashion for Good, shares how grounding ourselves deeply in our values help us have the resilience to create the long-term change we want to see in the world. Watch this interview to see how Jyotsna discovered her path in sustainability, equity, and empowerment, here at SCU and lives out these values in every aspect of her life! |
Student Stories  | Have you ever wondered what it takes to apply to a startup accelerator? The Accelerator Prep School offers you the opportunity to experience a supportive, dynamic, hands-on environment as you prepare to apply for an accelerator. Learn how to take your idea and make it a reality through roadmapping, problem solving, and pitch development. Take this last opportunity to apply by February 27th! |
 | Do you have a business idea? Do you love competitions? Ciocca Center's Business Pitch Competition is happening on May 12th, with workshops and practice sessions leading up to it. SCU students from all disciplines are welcome! Sign-up here! Multiple prizes are being awarded - including Most Interdisciplinary and Greatest Social Benefit. |
 | Bronco Ventures Idea Lab is an interdisciplinary program that exposes the attendees to the core concepts of design thinking, including ideation and pitching. Over 80 participants signed up for our Fall Ideation Module! Click here to learn more about Idea Lab's Spring Module starting April 5th! |
 | Congratulations Gwendolyn Patwardhan '25, Anaya Goradia '24, Samhita Rachapudi '25, Madison Nguyen '25, Beatrice Hackman ' 25, and Eerina Haque '25, our all-women team, on the first place prize for Hack 4 Humanity 2023! H4H brings together the diverse members of our campus and local community to use our skills to create something that will add value to our society. |
 | Ciocca Center partnered with the Career Center to host Startup Meet Up! This space offered a place for students to meet and have 1:1 conversations with Startup companies who are actively recruiting for internships and full-time opportunities! |
 | Looking for a club or RSO on campus? Use our Club Navigator, a great way to make connections and life-long friends! The platform came out of Ciocca Center's "You Are Here" initiative, where students collaborate on creating meaningful resources for SCU students. |
A Well Lighted Place  | We are excited to share a reflection from Instructor, Erika French-Arnold on the inclusion of Bronco Venture Idea Lab as part of MGMT 176 “Sustainable Food Systems” and plans to continue to make our resources available for faculty looking to bring the Entrepreneurial Mindset into their class. Click here to read about the collaboration with seasoned entrepreneurs and our team! |
 | Ciocca Center accepts Curricular Development Proposals on a rolling basis. The objective of this program is to support the development of new courses, modules, and programs that address themes that broadly relate to the topics of innovation and the entrepreneurial mindset. Learn more. |
 | Learn more about our current research and curriculum development projects here! |
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Upcoming Events
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Open for Business
5 p.m., Lucas Hall Santa Clara University
Ciocca Center is holding our annual Open for Business! event on Thursday, October 24th from 5-6:30 pm for all of the students in the Fall BUSN 70 (Contemporary Business Issues)!
Register Here!
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BVA Cafe
6:30 p.m., 3230 The Alameda, Santa Clara, CA 95053
WHAT: We call it “BVA Cafe” where CAFE stands for: Calling All Founders & Entrepreneurs
Meet and mingle with fellow BVA entrepreneurs, mentors, advisors and entrepreneurship-curious. Enjoy small bites while hearing updates from BVA Alumni and meeting new startup founders.
WHEN: The third Thursday of each month (except November and December when it is on the second Thursday), at 6:30 PM
WHERE: BVA House, 3230 The Alameda (2 doors North of the Hut, across from 7-11). We frequently adjourn to the Hut for adult beverages afterward.
BVA CAFE is open to all and free of charge; but, Registration is required.
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BEACH Kick-off
5 p.m. BEACH provides an Advisory Service for startups and small businesses to benefit from no cost legal and business information and resources. This experiential program is an opportunity for SCU students to work in cross-functional teams while gaining real-world hands-on experience navigating, researching and advising clients on legal or business concerns. Clients receive free information and resources from BEACH backed by research, review of findings complete with valuable recommendations and additional resources. |
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Idea Lab - Design Thinking
All Day
Be Empowered through Design Thinking @ Idea Lab - the SCU Community of graduate and undergraduate students, alumni, faculty and staff are ALL Invited to attend Bronco Ventures Idea Lab, an experiential no-cost program focused on the core concepts of design thinking, customer-centered problem analysis to Ideation and the Pitch!
Idea Lab is offering its Ideation module as a Saturday Workshop. The workshop will provide the attendees with the tools and techniques to empathize with the customers, deeply understand their pain points, generate human-centered solutions, and test the feasibility of potential solutions. The content presented in these modules leverages the core concepts of design thinking to empower students with the skills to define, approach, and solve problems in a creative manner, and complements technical content presented in a wide variety of courses.
Our goal is to help You create a team and a viable, feasible, and desirable business idea to continue beyond Idea Lab!
Upon completion, attendees will receive a digital certificate and badge.
Idea Lab is free and lunch will be provided.
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BVA Cafe
6:30 p.m., 3230 The Alameda, Santa Clara, CA 95053
WHAT: We call it “BVA Cafe” where CAFE stands for: Calling All Founders & Entrepreneurs
Meet and mingle with fellow BVA entrepreneurs, mentors, advisors and entrepreneurship-curious. Enjoy small bites while hearing updates from BVA Alumni and meeting new startup founders.
WHEN: The third Thursday of each month (except November and December when it is on the second Thursday), at 6:30 PM
WHERE: BVA House, 3230 The Alameda (2 doors North of the Hut, across from 7-11). We frequently adjourn to the Hut for adult beverages afterward.
BVA CAFE is open to all and free of charge; but, Registration is required.
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