Entrepreneurship Institute
Innovate. Create. Build. Disrupt. Take Your idea from concept to reality and learn how to launch the next industry-changing start-up!
The Entrepreneurship Institute at the Wake Forest Summer Immersion Program is an unforgettable experience for high school students. Learn how to develop, vet, and launch a valuable entrepreneurial idea. Meet and engage with successful entrepreneurs, tour start-up companies at different stages of development, and learn key principles of entrepreneurial marketing, finance, and strategy. Put it all into practice by planning, pitching, and launching a start-up by the end of the week.
At a Glance
2025 Dates: Week of June 15 – 20 or week of June 22 – 27
Program Length: Sunday – Friday, overnight
Who Can Apply?: Current 9th – 12th-grade students
Tuition: $3,200
*Tuition is subject to change per year
Location: Winston-Salem, NC – Wake Forest University Campus
*Courses carry no secondary school or college credit. Upon completion of the program, an official Wake Forest University Certificate of Completion will be awarded to all Entrepreneurship Institute participants.
What You’ll Experience
Topics Covered:
- Entrepreneurial Ideation
- Financial Modeling for Entrepreneurs
- Entrepreneurial Marketing — How to Target, Reach, and Sell to Target Market Customers
- Developing an Entrepreneurial Mindset
- Vapor Testing, Basic Prototyping, and Concept Development
Hands-On Experiences:
- Be mentored by founders, entrepreneurs, and industry leaders
- Tour business accelerators and incubators
- Learn to create a pitch deck
- Participate in a hands-on start-up competition
- Pivot Panel – Resilience to failure
*Hands-on experiences are subject to change.
A Day in the Life
Typical Daily Schedule
- 8:00 am – Morning Meeting and Breakfast
- 9:00 am – Welcome and Program Introduction
- 9:30 am – Innovation Presentation
- 10:00 am – Tour Local Start-Up Company
- 12:00 pm – Lunch
- 1:00 pm – Workshop: Introduction to Entrepreneurial Marketing/Personal Branding
- 2:00 pm – Marketing and Market Research for Your Business
- 3:30 pm – Outline Entrepreneurship Group Project and Group Project Workshop
- 4:00 pm – Debrief for the Day
- 5:00 pm – Dinner
- 6:30 pm – Evening Activities
- 7:30 pm – Free Time
- 9:00 pm – Prepare for Bed
- 10:30 Lights Out
*The “A Day in the Life” is subject to change.
Meet Your Academic Leader
Louis Foreman
Academic Leader, Entrepreneurship Institute
Louis Foreman is founder and Chief Executive of Enventys (www.enventys.com), an integrated product design and engineering firm. Louis graduated from The University of Illinois with a degree in Economics. His interest in starting businesses and developing innovative products began while a sophomore with his first company founded in his fraternity room. Over the past 38 years Louis has created 10 successful start-ups and has been directly responsible for the creation of over 20 others. A prolific inventor, he is the inventor of 10 registered US Patents, and his firm is responsible for the development and filing of hundreds more.
The recipient of numerous awards for entrepreneurial achievement, his passion for small business extends beyond his own companies. Louis is an Assistant Professor of the Practice in the Entrepreneurship Program at Wake Forest University. Louis was an adjunct professor and the Entrepreneur in Residence for 11 years at The McColl School of Business and was the 2013
Distinguished Visiting Professor at Johnson & Wales University. He also taught IP for Entrepreneurs at Central Michigan. He received the Instructor Achievement Award for his teaching at Central Piedmont Community College and was recognized by the National Museum of Education for his Distinguished Contributions to Education. He is a frequent lecturer and radio / TV guest on the topics of small business creation and innovation and is frequently invited by universities and national
trade associations to be a featured speaker on the topic of entrepreneurship and innovation. In addition to being an inventor, Louis is also committed to inspiring others to be innovative. Louis was the creator of the Emmy® Award winning PBS TV show, Everyday Edisons, and served as the Executive Producer and lead judge. The show won 2 Emmys in 4 seasons and appeared nationally on PBS. In 2007, Louis became the publisher of Inventors Digest, a 39- year-old publication
devoted to the topic of American Innovation. In 2009, his first book, The Independent Inventor’s Handbook, was published by Workman Publishing. In 2015, Louis was awarded the IP Champion Award by the US Chamber of Commerce. In June of 2022, Louis was inducted into the International IP Hall of Fame. He was inducted into the Carolinas Entrepreneur Hall of Fame in September of 2023.
Louis currently serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the James Dyson Foundation. He is a board member of the Intellectual Property Owners Association (IPO), The Federal Reserve Bank Industry Roundtable, Eightco Holdings, the Intellectual Property Owners Educational Foundation (IPOEF), the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) Carolinas Region, and the advisory board of Park National Bank.
In 2008, Louis was appointed to serve for a three-year term on the nine-person Patent Public Advisory Committee (PPAC) of the United States Patent and Trademark Office. In 2011, he was appointed to serve an additional three-year term. In 2013, Louis was appointed by the SBA Administrator to serve on the National SBDC Advisory Board until the end of 2024. In 2023 he was appointed to the Federal NIST MEP advisory board for an initial 3 year term. In 2011 Louis was called upon, multiple times, to brief the House and Senate Judiciary Committees on legislation related to the US Patent System and its impact on independent inventors. On September 16, 2011, Louis joined the President on-stage for the signing of the America Invents Act into law. This bi-partisan effort represented the most comprehensive overhaul to the US Patent System in over 60 years.
