Ten RMU students will pursue and develop their own entrepreneurial ideas this fall as the first recipients of the Rockwell Fellowship in Entrepreneurship and Innovation, a new two-year program offered through the School of Business.

Rockwell Fellows each receive a $6,000 scholarship — $3,000 per year over two years — to support their study of foundational concepts and tools by which to further develop their ideas. Rockwell Fellows will have access to an array of networking opportunities to engage with actors across the region's entrepreneurial ecosystem. They will work as a team to facilitate experiences and events across campus, and attend workshops and conferences, engage with mentors and coaches, and utilize other resources to further develop and test their concepts and business models.

The fellowship is supported by a $240,000 grant from the S. Kent Rockwell Foundation and is open to rising sophomores and juniors of any major. The grant will support three cohorts of ten fellows each, with the first cohort beginning this fall. Rockwell Fellows will also earn a certificate in entrepreneurship, RMU's curricular program committed to entrepreneurial thinking.

The Pittsburgh-based foundation was founded by Steven Kent Rockwell, a Pittsburgh venture capitalist, executive chairman of ExOne, and former chairman, president, and CEO of Astrotech International and SensysTech. The foundation awards grants to promote entrepreneurship and innovation, education, community advancement, and environmentalism and conservation.

The Rockwell Fellows for 2020 are:

• Shalece Craighead, Management 
• Jonathan Guaetta, Marketing and Management 
• Melanie Hulse, Marketing 
• Keaton Jennings, Finance 
• Owen McNulty, Finance
• Antoine Mosley, Accounting 
• Sean Mullen, Marketing 
• Sarah Parry, Management and Marketing 
• Hannah Starcher, Marketing 
• Hannah B. Williams, Cybersecurity and Digital Forensics