Turner School of Entrepreneurship & Innovation

Welcome to the Turner School of Entrepreneurship and Innovation where your creative ideas are celebrated, your innovative spirit is nurtured, and your entrepreneurial and innovative skills developed. Together, we’ll dream big, design smart, and develop for success.

Thanks to the support and generosity from Robert and Carolyn Turner, the Turner School of Entrepreneurship and Innovation offers an inclusive, interdisciplinary journey to shape a brighter future for individuals, communities, and our planet!

Mission & Mantra

We facilitate learning adventures to conquer challenges with innovative thinking and ingenuity.

Dream, Design, Develop your ideas

Dream: Leverage your creativity for a better tomorrow
Be-creative, Be-innovative, Be-You. The Turner School community fosters creativity and innovation. Join us to nurture your entrepreneurial spirit and bring your ideas to fruition.
Design: Map your ideas through hands-on action
Be-brave, Be-collaborative, Be-involved. At the Turner School you’ll find coaching and an engaging curriculum to advance you from ideas to workable solutions.
Develop: Build a scaling framework for success
Be-courageous, Be-confident, Be-limitless. Turning your ideas into action is what the Turner School is all about. Overcoming challenges with ingenuity and flair prepares you to evolve yourself and your idea from problem solving to impactful solution.

Entrepreneurship and Innovation Minor

This interdisciplinary minor guides students to their innovative ideas into opportunities. The 21st century problem solving skills developed within the SEI minor are required for successful entrepreneurial endeavors and are in demand by large corporations, small businesses, family businesses, startups, nonprofit entities and social ventures.

Get started today! Contact the SEI Minor Advisor at Turner School at turnerschool@bradley.edu or call (309) 677-1700 for SEI minor inquiries.

Who is this program for?

This minor consists of 15 hours with 3 required courses, and 2 elective courses in Pathways (6 hours). The minor lets you design a themed adventure based on your passions and interdisciplinary perspective. Select 2 courses in a pathway, to maximize connections between them.

Students will engage in experiential learning to develop competencies:

Dreaming new ideas into realistic possibilities
Harnessing resources to design for success
Overcoming challenges to advance ideas
Assessing possibilities to solve business, societal, and environmental problems
Commercializing products and services
Networking with diverse groups
Showcasing innovative thoughts

Employers seek graduates with enhanced skills in opportunity recognition, problem solving, execution intelligence and creativity. Additionally, many graduates pursue careers as freelancers, relying on their knowledge of entrepreneurial skills to complete projects as they work for themselves. The minor equips you with the right tools to be ready for the workforce.

Program Requirements

Required Courses – 9 hrs.

SEI 202: Mindsets of Entrepreneurship & Innovation
SEI 305: Innovation Journey

Choose your third course among:

SEI 330: Intellectual Capital Management
SEI 340: Organizational Entrepreneurship & Innovation
SEI 350: Social Innovation & Impact
SEI 360: Planning New Ventures

Select 2 courses in the following Pathways to maximize learning connections.

Pathways

Freelance Your Future

ART 140: Art History I
COM 225: Visual Storytelling
COM 388: Social Media Communication
ENG 305: Technical Writing
ENG 306: Business Writing
IM 113: Introduction to Interactive Media
MUS 101: Introduction to Music Business
MUS 304: Music Licensing and Contracts
THE 223: Theatrical Producing

Human Systems & Social Impact

BIO 300: Population, Resources and Environment
BIO 301: Biotechnology and Society
CHM 110: General Chemistry
CSD 300: Speech and Hearing Science
ENS 105: Sustainability
ENS 110: Environmental Science
FCS 202: Food and Nutrition
FCS 221: Community and Public Health
KHS 210: Personal Wellness and Fitness
NPL 300: Advanced Leadership Studies
NUR 219: Women and Health
SOC 105: Social Justice
SOC 325: Environmental Sociology
SOC 326: Sociology of Globalization

Business Startup

BLW 347: Law and the Entrepreneur
ECO 221: Principles of Microeconomics
MIS 173: Introduction to Business Analytics
MIS 279: Personal Security and Privacy
ML 252: Organizational Creativity
ML 350: Managing for Results in Organizations
MTG 315: Introduction to Marketing

Degree Completion

Bradley’s interdisciplinary innovation degree completion program enables students to build on the 90-plus credit hours you already have to earn your B.A. or B.S. degree. Offered through the Turner School of Entrepreneurship and Innovation on-campus classes help you develop the skills to become an innovative thought leader in your career.

Program Requirements

Students meet with their adviser to develop a meaningful interdisciplinary plan of study, which must include two courses from the Turner School of Entrepreneurship Innovation:
SEI 202 Mindsets of Entrepreneurship and Innovation (3 hrs.)
SEI 305 Innovation Journey (3 hrs.)

The plan also explains the student’s academic and career objectives and details how innovation is needed to solve problems in their current or future career.

Competitions & Events

Fall

Ideas for Good

The Ideas for Good Awards, provides the perfect opportunity for students to showcase their
ideas and designs for a better world! These Awards celebrate all student entries with a special
luncheon in November.

Students submit essays for ideas that promote an interdisciplinary understanding of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Submit Essays and find more information here:

Brave Pitch

Looking for a quick easy way to share your idea or innovation with a knowledgeable group?

The Brave Pitch is for you!

Whether you have a business idea, product, service, app, or nonprofit idea, Brave Pitch is for you! You don’t need to have a full business plan, and no entrepreneurial or business experience is necessary!

It’s simple. Create and upload a 1-3 minute video describing your idea.

Why Compete?

Receive valuable feedback on your idea.
Fast track your idea into one of our other competitions (Social Impact Challenge and Big Idea
Competition)
Win Prizes! 1st place: $200, 2nd place: $150, and 3rd place: $100

How to Enter?

Submit Video Entries and find more information here:

Confidentiality

While Big Idea Competition considers all submitted business plans as confidential and treats all team matters as such, protection of sensitive materials (e.g., intellectual property, copyright, or patents) is the sole responsibility of the competitors. Non-Disclosure Agreements will not be signed by judges, mentors, or any Bradley staff associated with the competition.
Awards and Financial Aid

Please be aware that if an award given to a Bradley student exceeds the Cost of Attendance (COA) [the estimated cost to attend Bradley University, including tuition and fees, books and supplies, living expenses, transportation costs, and miscellaneous expenses], it may cause other previously issued financial aid such as loans to be reduced. If aid is impacted by this award, distribution of the award may be delayed until the conclusion of the semester. All awards are taxable to the individual recipients.

Submit Your Entry

FAQs

Spring

Big Idea

The Big Idea Competition from the Turner School of Entrepreneurship and Innovation is a chance for you – Bradley students and recent alumni – to pitch and develop an innovative idea, product, service, or new business. Demonstrate your creativity by presenting your entrepreneurial ideas to a panel of judges and potential investors.

When you join the Big Idea, you’ll gain knowledge on the processes of turning ideas into opportunities, incorporating feedback to iterate, and developing networks. All this increases the likelihood of success, while gaining exposure to potential investors.

Why Compete?

Receive support to showcase your innovation in the Big Idea Innovation Expo.
Obtain mentoring for your ideas from professionals in the entrepreneurial ecosystem when selected as finalists.
Win some cash to invest in your business idea:
1st place finishers $6,000
2nd place – $4,000
3rd place – $2,000
Earn in-kind prizes valued at $5,000 for co-working space, consultation on legal, patent and trademarks topics and more

How to Enter?

Students attend ideation sessions to brainstorm ideas, meet students from other majors, form teams and get directions to prepare competitive applications.

Screening Round

Submit a 2-page written summary HERE:

Selected teams advance to the Innovation Expo where they demonstrate their business idea to the public and make an elevator pitch to judges.

Community voting and judges’ evaluation advance up to 5 teams to the Big Ideas Final Pitch.

Finalist teams learn how to write a full feasibility plan and prepare a compelling 10 minute pitch, with the assistance of mentors from the business community.

Winners selected from judges’ combined scores on the feasibility plan and presentation.

Submit Your Big Idea

Submission Guidelines

FAQs

Distinguished Entrepreneur Speaker Series

The Turner School of Entrepreneurship and Innovation is where dreamers become doers. Our Distinguished Entrepreneur Speaker Series is an opportunity for you to engage with those who have deployed innovation to create entrepreneurial success.

Each year the Turner School honors a world-renowned entrepreneur with the annual Distinguished Entrepreneur of the Year Award. The honoree speaks to the Bradley and Peoria communities in a dynamic event that’s all about exploring innovative and entrepreneurial paths.

Distinguished Entrepreneur of the Year

Komal Ahmad,
Founder & CEO of Copia

WED Nov 12, from 5:00 – 6:30PM at Peplow Pavilion Distinguished Entrepreneur of the Year Presentation by Komal Ahmad: Visionary Entrepreneur | Global Changemaker | Tech Innovator

Komal Ahmad is the Founder, former CEO, and President of Copia, a revolutionary platform tackling what she calls “The World’s Dumbest Problem” —hunger in the face of massive food waste. By turning excess into impact, she has led the rescue of over 12 million pounds of food, redirecting it from landfills to feed 10 million people with high-quality meals that would have otherwise gone to waste. That’s enough food to fill the nation’s largest football stadium 100 times over!

Her visionary leadership and relentless pursuit of innovation have propelled Copia to become one of the top women-led startups in the U.S., setting a gold standard for social entrepreneurship. She is living proof that bold ideas, fueled by audacity and relentless action, don’t just spark change—they redefine the world.

Previous Speakers

2024 Shawn Seipler, Founder & CEO of Clean the World Global
2023 Jeff Hoffman, Priceline.com / Booking.com founder, author, film producer
2022 Capt. Rosbach, Hydro Flask® inventor and founder
2019 Rob Angel, creator of the popular board game “Pictionary”
2018 Frank Shankwitz, Make-A-Wish Foundation founder
2017 Gene Landrum, originator Chuck E. Cheese
2016 Craig Culver, Culver’s Restaurants founder
2015 Dave Alwan, President of Echo Valley Meats
2014 Former Ambassador Nancy Brinker, Komen Foundation, and Race for the Cure founder
2014 Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey, Barefoot Wine founders
2013 Michael DeLazzer, Redbox founder
2013 Jeff Hoffman, Priceline.com founder