Eaton Center About

Start a small business in Haiti.  Consult with international ministries.  Innovate within a new start-up. The Eaton Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation helps Westmont students engage at the intersection of their gifts, their passions, and their time with the Lord to have eternally significant encounters with the world around them.   We do this because God promises that our gifts are irrevocable, that He didn’t make a mistake when He made you and that He wants you to fully engage the world and be salt and light. Many of our Economics and Business students do so in the form of innovative ideas and entrepreneurial ventures.

Entrepreneurship and New Venture Development class is unlike any other. Rather than writing outlandish business plans to compete in local, regional and national competitions (we’ve won at every level, by the way), we choose instead to find the deepest needs in the world and write business plans to address those needs. What we do next? It’s simple – we give our plans away to our partners around the globe to have a lasting impact in addressing some of the world’s deepest needs.  It is much more rewarding than beating a team of MBAs from a top school with an outlandish idea that too often is going nowhere.

The Eaton Center for Entrepreneurship and New Venture Development class also has a class that goes to Haiti and literally launches companies with local entrepreneurs. Business at the Bottom of the Pyramid is a class designed to identify local needs, do appropriate due diligence around those needs, construct a robust business plan…and then actually get on a plane over Spring Break and launch the companies with our local partners. We call it celebrating the heroes.  It’s not a hand out – it’s a hand up…and it rocks their world. It rocks our world.  And, to our knowledge, it is the only program of its kind on the planet.

Welcome to Westmont, where we do things differently, and where the habitual pursuit of excellence is part of our DNA.