Impact 2023: Co-Curricular Programs

Experiential Programs Help Our Community Learn by Doing

Duke I&E offers a wide range of co-curricular programs to support students, alumni, faculty, and staff with their interests and goals—events, competitions, guest speakers, clubs, venture support, and beyond. With the entrepreneurial mindset and skills our community gains from these and other Duke programs, they are prepared to become the next generation of impactful leaders, building a regional, national, and global supportive entrepreneurship community. 

Participation in Duke I&E Co-Curricular Programs 

Melissa & Doug Entrepreneurs   

Melissa & Doug Entrepreneurs, our flagship startup accelerator for students who have launched their own companies, continues to provide an exceptional experience for a select group of founders who have demonstrated both traction and commitment with their startups. To date, the 110 student founders who have gone through the program have raised more than $21 million, with six companies making successful exits. 

In 2023, the Melissa & Doug Entrepreneurs accelerator supported 7 student founders, providing executive coaching, group meetings with alumni, and one-on-one conversations throughout the year with program sponsor and namesake Melissa Bernstein ’87, co-founder of Melissa & Doug toys and Lifelines. 

Clubs 

I&E offers support to various student groups as they provide opportunities for students to learn through practice as well as hone their leadership skills: 

Duke-UNICEF Innovation Accelerator 

Duke has brought our many decades of social entrepreneurship expertise to the Duke-UNICEF Innovation Accelerator, a partnership between Duke and UNICEF that increases the effectiveness, sustainability, and scale of promising solutions to critical challenges facing the world’s children. By providing social enterprise teams with funding, mentorship, and other capacity-building support, this program has helped social entrepreneurs acquire the knowledge, tools, and networks needed to improve the lives of children around the world. The Accelerator has also provided additional opportunities for Duke students to work with the innovators and gain international social innovation client experience, as well as opportunities to engage Duke faculty and alumni as mentors. In 2023, Accelerator teams operated in 34 countries, leveraging the experience of 100 mentors (14 of them Duke alumni) and engaging more than 100 students.