• <a href="/live/image/gid/416/width/650/86536_Entrepreneurship_main_image.jpg" class="lw_preview_image lw_disable_preview" tabindex="-1"><picture class="lw_image lw_image86536"> <source type="image/jpeg" media="(max-width: 500px)" srcset="/live/image/gid/416/width/500/height/479/crop/1/86536_Entrepreneurship_main_image.rev.1607736580.jpg 1x, /live/image/scale/2x/gid/416/width/500/height/479/crop/1/86536_Entrepreneurship_main_image.rev.1607736580.jpg 2x, /live/image/scale/3x/gid/416/width/500/height/479/crop/1/86536_Entrepreneurship_main_image.rev.1607736580.jpg 3x"/> <source type="image/jpeg" media="(min-width: 501px)" srcset="/live/image/gid/416/width/720/height/690/crop/1/86536_Entrepreneurship_main_image.rev.1607736580.jpg 1x, /live/image/scale/2x/gid/416/width/720/height/690/crop/1/86536_Entrepreneurship_main_image.rev.1607736580.jpg 2x"/> <img src="/live/image/gid/416/width/720/height/690/crop/1/86536_Entrepreneurship_main_image.rev.1607736580.jpg" alt="Winterim is a fast-paced immersive week designed to develop entrepreneurial and leadership skills in a supportive and fun environment." width="720" height="690" srcset="/live/image/scale/2x/gid/416/width/720/height/690/crop/1/86536_Entrepreneurship_main_image.rev.1607736580.jpg 2x" data-max-w="1534" data-max-h="1600" loading="lazy"/> </picture> </a><div class="hero-split_image_caption collapsable-caption"> Winterim is a fast-paced immersive week designed to develop entrepreneurial and leadership skills in a supportive and fun environment.</div>

Why Choose a Minor in Entrepreneurship?

With a minor in entrepreneurial leadership and innovation, you will integrate critical thinking, analytical abilities, and communication skills to create and test solutions in the for-profit and nonprofit worlds. Use our program’s four pillars—entrepreneurial mindset, concrete skill sets, experiential opportunities, and networking—to leverage your bachelor of arts degree. You will develop a greater understanding of yourself and others in order to collaborate more effectively and be an agent of positive change through substantial hands-on experiences. You will gain a powerful toolkit and network, enabling you to translate your entrepreneurship minor into action as you prepare for the future of work, ventures, and adventures. The Bates Center will connect you directly with Portland business and nonprofit leaders who understand the value of a liberal arts education. And when you graduate, you will find that the Lewis & Clark network extends far beyond the Pacific Northwest. 

Support Our Center

What You’ll Study

Our interdisciplinary program combines critical thinking, one of the chief benefits of a liberal arts education, with direct and hands-on links to the worlds of entrepreneurship, business, and positive social change so that our students are prepared for the transition to work and life. You will take courses in sustainability, design thinking, nonprofit management, future technologies, and much more, plus participate in at least one of the Bates Center’s cocurricular programs. We also offer one-credit skills classes designed to help you in your ventures, activities, current work, and future of work. Many of our students earn course credit while on an overseas program.

Outside the classroom, we engage the local for-profit and nonprofit communities and provide experiential and networking opportunities via our classroom lecturers, internship class, programming, and practica. Our dynamic programming includes

  • Winterim, an immersive week of building venture and life skills that culminates in a pitch competition
  • Lunch With a Leader, a series of free lunches with successful entrepreneurs and industry leaders
  • The Bates Center Seed Grant Program, money for students to launch their entrepreneurial endeavors
  • Experts in Residence, numerous experts in a variety of fields—such as law, investing, food/agriculture, and health care—who meet individually with students during office hours
  • Entrepreneur in Residence, an industry professional who coaches, supports, and connects students to test and implement ideas

Curriculum

Complement Your Education With One of These Majors

Students from nearly every major have minored in entrepreneurship. The most popular majors for our entrepreneurial leadership and innovation minors are computer science and mathematics, economics, and rhetoric and media studies.


  • The Bates Center sustainability internship helped me by giving me a bunch of really cool internship options, giving me interview and resume advice, and then getting to talk to my professors about priorities and going over what would be best for me.

    Elijah Black BA ’23
    Economics | Entrepreneurial Leadership and Innovation | San Francisco and Pacifica, California
    More about Elijah
  • The entrepreneurship minor is unlike any other program as it offers the perfect environment for collaboration, innovation, and hands-on experience. The data science minor is also amazing because you learn the best methods of collecting, analyzing, and interpreting data, and the societal consequences of this exploration.

    Sebastian DePrez BA ’25
    Computer Science and Mathematics | Data Science and Entrepreneurial Leadership and Innovation (double) | Upland, California
    More about Sebastian
  • The entrepreneurial leadership and innovation minor provides me with many opportunities outside of Lewis & Clark. The topics covered in the classes are a great combination of liberal arts and business.

    Bennett Gazor BA ’25
    Psychology | Entrepreneurial Leadership and Innovation | Tiburon, California
    More about Bennett

What Can You Do With a Minor in Entrepreneurship?

Our alumni use their minor in entrepreneurship in a variety of careers, including running an expedition company with an environmental focus; working for adidas, KPMG, Adobe, and Intel; and launching sustainable businesses, such as a refill technology startup to reduce plastic consumption and a circular sanitation company that raised $5M of investor funding this past year.

Dedicated Faculty

Our expert professors are your expert mentors. You will learn directly from faculty (no graduate assistants here!) that are nationally recognized in their fields of study and who love to work with and learn from their students. Your professors will inspire you to be a thoughtful and passionate participant in a diverse world. Your small classes will support you as you explore new ideas, find your voice, and speak your truth.

Our program uses industry adjuncts, in addition to our faculty, who have a special ability to engage with students as well as provide context and contacts that will help when you graduate.

Meet the Professors

  • Top 100 

    Lewis & Clark is in the top 100 on U.S. News & World Report’s 2023–24 “Best National Liberal Arts Colleges” list.

  • 96% 

    Within six months of graduation, 96% of the Lewis & Clark Classes of 2018–2022 were already changing the world through employment (76%), continuing studies (19%), and service work (1%), like the Peace Corps.

  • Equity 

    We are the only liberal arts school in Oregon on Colleges of Distinction’s “Best Equity and Inclusion” list for 2023–24.

  • Value 

    Lewis & Clark is on U.S. News & World Report’s 2023–24 “Best Value Schools” list.

  • 125 

    of our undergraduate students are Third Culture Kids.

Invest in Yourself

A private liberal arts education is often more affordable than you think. Last year, Lewis & Clark distributed over $74 million in assistance from institutional, federal, state, and private sources. Additionally, we’re so confident that our first-year students will graduate in four years with their bachelor of arts degree that if you don’t, we’ll cover the extra semester of tuition.

Any student who attends high school in Oregon (or an Oregon resident attending high school elsewhere) and is passionate about entrepreneurship is encouraged to apply to be an Entrepreneurship Scholar. Oregon residents who wish to transfer from their four-year or community college are also encouraged to apply.

Find Your People

Students can join a variety of student-run organizations, such as Entrepreneurship Club and Investing Club. Don’t see what you’re looking for on the club list? Start something new and build your own community of peers!


Where Lewis & Clark Will Take You

  • The interdisciplinary nature of Lewis & Clark influenced my thinking in terms of how I could bring various fields of thought together to create positive change. This led me to develop my theory of change of using business and cross-sector partnerships as a lever to make a positive impact for people and the planet.

    Raiven Greenberg BA ’17
    Psychology | Environmental Studies | Huntington Beach, California
    More about Raiven
  • I have been working remotely as a project manager for a boutique film company; allowing me to gain new experiences while being able to travel occasionally to visit family and friends.

    Mia Babasyan BA ’22
    Environmental Studies | Entrepreneurial Leadership
    More about Mia
  • L&C taught me the value of being multifaceted. If your desired path through life doesn’t exist, then you have the tools to figure out how to create it.

    Ben Kolligs BA ’18
    Physics | Mathematics | Berkeley, California
    More about Ben

Bates Center for Entrepreneurship and Leadership Events

April 3

Lunch with a Leader: Alli Deverman

What can you do with a Sociology/Anthropology degree? Everything! Come listen to this alumna describe her journey juggling full time student responsibilities while being a single parent of a young child to Microsoft senior management.

April 17

Expert in Residence Law

Wondering what legal issues you should consider when exploring ideas? Do you need to form a business entity? Thinking about law school? Come meet our Expert in Residence Law Robert Scott, former General Counsel of Lattice

More News and Events →