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!

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.

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

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

Competitions & Events

Fall

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

The Ideas for Good Awards celebrate innovative student ideas that identify meaningful social and environmental challenges connected to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The Awards are designed to inspire, encourage, and incentivize students to explore issues they care about. The Awards promote curiosity, innovation, collaboration, interdisciplinary thinking, and impact-oriented problem solving.

Submissions – from individual students or teams – are in the form of research posters. All submissions receive an Award certificate. Selected posters receive category honors at a special reception on November 17 at 3PM.

Students submit here by November 2; find more information on Turner School page on Be Connected.

Spring

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.

Jory Luster, ‘75
CEO of Luster Products Inc.,

Luster received his B.S. degree in business administration from Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois, in 1975. Luster went on to attend Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, where he received his M.B.A. degree in 2000.

Location: Hayden-Clark Peplow Pavilion, 816 N Tobias Ln, Peoria, 61625

Date and time: Wed, November 18, 2026, 5:00 – 6:30 PM

RSVP: Registration link

More Information: turnerschool@bradley.edu or (309) 677-1700

2025 Komal Ahmad, Founder & CEO of Copia
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