Impact 2024

A Message From Our Director

As humankind faces complex global challenges—old problems we have long fought to solve, along with new issues brought about by emerging technologies with yet unknown repercussions—we need a generation of problem solvers who can develop and test sustainable models of addressing these challenges. We need creative, resilient innovators and entrepreneurs to effect meaningful change, small and large, on every front.

Whether students want to start a company, innovate within a large firm, commercialize their research, change the world with a social innovation, initiate public sector transformation, or pursue any number of other paths, we see what a difference it makes for them to be empowered with creativity, curiosity, a bias for action, empathy, resilience, and the tools to effect change. With an entrepreneurial mindset and competencies, our community can realize their impact by knowing how to bring an idea to life—and having the courage to move from idea to action.   

In Duke I&E’s history of inspiring and empowering the Duke community to take entrepreneurial action, 2024 has been a banner year. We have strengthened and scaled our programs and operations, making major advances toward our vision that all students will have an experience with Duke I&E during their time at Duke.

FY 2024 Highlights:

• Over the course of the academic year, we served 3,561 unique students across Duke programs, representing nearly a 30% increase from FY23. We served 30% of the undergraduate Class of 2024 and 20% of the graduate and professional school students from the Class of 2024, increases of 21% and 7%, respectively, from the Class of 2023.
• We not only engaged a higher volume of students in FY24, but we also saw repeat engagement and loyalty amongst the students we serve, as evidenced by our 7,671 total interactions with students, over 80% higher than last year. 
• The Duke I&E Certificate has grown to the largest certificate on campus, with an enrollment of 816, comprised of 421 undergraduates and 395 graduate students in 2023-24.
• We served a diverse student body, with representation from 44 undergraduate majors, 33 PhD disciplines, and 7 Fuqua degree programs.
• PhD engagement continues to grow, with 271 PhD students served and 121 PhD students enrolled in the Graduate & Professional Certificate. 
• We engaged 273 alumni, Duke parents, and other volunteers as mentors, classroom speakers, advisors, and advocates, an increase of 26% over 2023.
• Our event and program collaborations with the Duke Career Center, Duke Student Affairs, Duke Alumni Engagement & Development, the Christensen Family Center for Innovation at the Pratt School of Engineering, the Office of Translation & Commercialization, and others have leveraged the breadth of Duke’s offerings in innovation and entrepreneurship.
• The Duke I&E Luby Family Bullpen, our new space at The Fuqua School of Business, has lived up to our hopes as a dynamic space where innovators and entrepreneurs from across Duke can gather to collaborate and spark new ideas.

We will relentlessly continue our foundational work, striving to grow and deepen our student engagement in pursuit of our bold goals. Over the coming years we also will focus on longer term strategic goals that complement Duke’s broader institutional goals, including: expanding our undergraduate course offerings into the area of financing innovation; developing the ability to measure the long-term impact of our programs on student career outcomes; nurturing more Duke-founded ventures to successful outcomes; developing new programs to teach technology commercialization; expanding engagement in the alumni community, including launching a Duke I&E Weekend, growing our suite of educational programs for alumni, and adding new alumni volunteer roles; and securing the resources needed to support our ambitions for growth.

In this year’s annual report, I invite you to explore Duke I&E’s impact over the past year in key areas:

Curricular offerings: With educational offerings that are interdisciplinary, team-based, problem-focused, and research-based, Duke I&E helps foster a robust, responsive, and inclusive learning community. Our educational offerings center risk-taking and collaboration as vital components of entrepreneurial action.

Experiential programs: With mentorship from successful practitioners, opportunities to work on real-world projects, and partnerships in the rapidly growing Triangle region and beyond, our programs outside formal course work are rooted in experience and practice.

Faculty engagement: When it comes to innovation and entrepreneurship, Duke faculty and researchers stand apart for the breadth, depth, and impact of their research in the field. Duke I&E leverages their work and research to inform programming, equip practitioners, and elevate Duke as a world-leading institution for innovation and entrepreneurship.

The Duke I&E Network: Duke innovators, entrepreneurs, and leaders are changing the world with their achievements across industries. In collaboration with colleagues across Duke and volunteers around the globe, we create opportunities for Duke alumni and parents to come together to learn, build connections, and inspire future collaboration.

With the support of the Duke community, there is truly no limit to what we can help our students achieve as they venture out to innovate. Thank you for your partnership in nurturing an entrepreneurial ecosystem that both inspires and empowers our community to change the world.

To Impact, 

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