Connolly Center for Entrepreneurship

The J. Lawrence Connolly Center for Entrepreneurship is an interdisciplinary center intended to help students from across campus learn how to turn their creative ideas into successful business ventures. The Connolly Center is named in recognition of the generosity and support of Leigh and Larry Connolly '79. Connolly is the former CEO of Connolly Inc., a recovery audit accounting and consulting firm. The couple gave $2.5 million to the university in 2013 to establish the center.

A liberal arts university is the ideal setting in which to foster entrepreneurship. Students are immersed in a course of study that emphasizes analytical thinking, qualitative and quantitative reasoning, creativity and innovation. The Connolly Center provides them with the necessary tools to develop business plans that are both executable and fundable, and an extremely supportive faculty and alumni community helps shepherd students' ventures from concept to business plan to launch and beyond.