North Carolina Central University News July 24, 2013 NCCU Entrepreneur Lab Joins The American Underground On Thursday, July 18, the North Carolina Central University School of Business<http://www.nccu.edu/academics/sc/business/> Entrepreneur Lab joined the current 40 plus tenants in celebrating the official opening of The American Underground @ Main<http://www.americanunderground.com/>. The American Underground @ Main, located in downtown Durham, provides co-working office space to help startup businesses perform their day-to-day operations, while creating a supportive environment for startup businesses in the heart of the Durham entrepreneurship community. Operating as one of NCCU's first off-site facilities, the Entrepreneur Lab in The American Underground @ Main offers business students opportunities to gain additional real world experience working with local entrepreneurs to advance the development of their startup ventures under the guidance of NCCU faculty. NCCU students will engage in projects and internships with startup businesses in this entrepreneurial environment. The experiential learning gained by the students will better prepare them for their own entrepreneurial ventures and other career opportunities. As a part of NCCU's continuing efforts to engage with the community, NCCU School of Business Entrepreneur-in-Residence Ed Weems, along with other faculty, will support companies in The American Underground @ Main by providing expertise and counsel to help them succeed. All of these activities will take place in the storefront offices along the historic Main Street in Durham - continuing the tradition of entrepreneurship at NCCU and in Durham. "We are excited about this incredible opportunity for our students to further engage with local entrepreneurs and develop their own ideas about business ventures they desire to pursue," said D. Keith Pigues, dean of the School of Business. "We are successful if more students launch successful new businesses that employ people, generate tax revenue for the state of North Carolina and create wealth for our students and their families." The Entrepreneurship lab is one of a series of initiatives recently launched to support the entrepreneurship emphasis at the NCCU School of Business to continually improve student success. Other recently launched initiatives include an Entrepreneurship Concentration for both the undergraduate and MBA programs and a Student Venture Challenge. American Underground Chief Strategist Adam Klein<http://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/search/results?q=Adam%20Klein> reflected on his excitement about welcoming NCCU School of Business to The American Underground @ Main and said, "To have the opportunity at the Underground where students have a physical space to come and work, where they can engage with faculty off campus is really important. Being able to rub shoulders with up to 75 companies in in both American Underground and Underground @ Main day in and day out is exciting." SANDRA M. PHOENIX Executive Director HBCU Library Alliance sphoenix@hbculibraries.org<mailto:sphoenix@hbculibraries.org> www.hbculibraries.org<http://www.hbculibraries.org/> 800-999-8558, ext. 4820 404-702-5854 Skype: sandra.phoenix1 1438 West Peachtree NW Suite 200 Atlanta,GA 30309 Toll Free: 1.800.999.8558 (LYRASIS) Fax: 404.892.7879 www.lyrasis.org<http://www.lyrasis.org/> Honor the ancestors, honor the children.