MEADVILLE, Pa. – Feb. 12, 2007 — Entrepreneurship Week USA (E-Week), a national initiative to educate students about the role that innovation and entrepreneurial endeavors play in our society, will be celebrated at Allegheny College throughout the week of February 26 to March 2. All events related to E-Week are free and open to the public.

Kristena Hart, district manager of Starbucks Corp. for the Pittsburgh region, will give the opening presentation on Monday, Feb. 26 at 4 p.m. in Room 302 of the Campus Center. She will speak on “The Business and Social Dimensions of Entrepreneurship at Starbucks Corporation.”

Throughout E-Week, students and other members of the college community will display posters on a variety of entrepreneurial projects, including the college's student-run Grounds for Change coffee house, the We Love Meadville project, Gnosh.com and a number of entrepreneurial programs related to the college's Center for Economic and Environmental Development (CEED).

Posters featuring student-faculty collaborative research from biology, chemistry, computer science and art also will be on display in the Campus Center.

Throughout the week, students will compete in the first annual Gator Innovation Challenge in two categories: Business Plan and Social Entrepreneurship. The challenge seeks creative ideas for bringing together and/or creating resources to make a lasting contribution to the well-being of our society.

A community meeting, co-sponsored by CEED, the Meadville-Western Crawford County Area Chamber of Commerce and the Redevelopment Authority of Meadville, will be held from 3 to 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 28 in the Tillotson Room of the Tippie Alumni Center at Cochran Hall. The meeting will focus on the “Meadville, PA: Not Your Run of the Mill Community Project,” an ongoing collaboration among numerous community stakeholders that aims to re-create Meadville as an economically, ecologically and socially sustainable community.

CEED and project partners will provide an update on work over the past 18 months and will also announce plans to launch a new project for development of a master plan for Mill Run, a stream that flows through Meadville from above Shadybrook Park to the confluence of French Creek.

The Mill Run master plan will focus on four areas of development: ecological restoration, health and quality of life, design, and the economic/community development potential of areas along the stream. Visualizations of preliminary concept plans will be presented, and community members will participate in the presentation of key ideas for the Meadville Project and the Mill Run master plan.

E-Week at Allegheny will close on Friday, March 2 in the Campus Center lobby with the announcement at 12:30 p.m. of the Gator Innovation Challenge winners in the Business and Social categories, each of whom will receive a $350 award. Students and members of the college community will be present to discuss the work displayed in the posters, and hands-on displays will be available for viewing and interaction beginning at noon. The Grounds for Change coffee house will be open as well.

E-Week is sponsored by the Kauffman Foundation in collaboration with the New York Times and Inc. magazine. The initiative is designed to stimulate ongoing interest among individuals and organizations in developing young people's entrepreneurial skills – and as inspiration for young people to begin a journey to fulfill their potential as self-starters and entrepreneurs.