New class of IU Ventures Fellows seeks real-time exposure to world of venture capital
Buoyed by the successes of its initial fellowship class, IU Ventures, Indiana University's early-stage venture and angel investment arm, has welcomed its second cohort of IU Ventures Fellows. This year's class, which includes IU graduate students representing a wide range of academic interests, backgrounds and experiences, will spend the next year immersing themselves in the fundamentals of venture capital and taking the first steps toward becoming successful early-stage entrepreneurs and investors.
The IU Ventures Fellows program, which runs for 12 months from January through December, provides students with a real-world education designed to help them to effectively identify, evaluate, structure and invest in new ventures. The program, which "graduated" its first class of fellows this past December, is helmed by Neil Powell, executive director of student experiential learning at IU Ventures and director of the IU Kelley School of Business MBA Strategic Finance Academy.
"We are extremely excited and pleased to welcome the newest class of IU Ventures Fellows," said Powell. "Each of these students is prepared to embark upon a unique opportunity to learn about -- and pursue their passion for -- business startups, as they also build lasting relationships with leading venture capitalists and innovators from Indiana and beyond."
This year's fellows include seven students from across IU's Bloomington campus whose interests span the fields of arts administration, business and finance, data science, informatics, law, mathematics and sociology. Through a combination of online and in-person seminars, guest lectures, internships and real-time projects, they will learn about the processes of deal sourcing and due diligence, while engaging with IU alumni and industry experts currently working in the venture sector.
"I am hoping to bring the business and arts worlds closer together," said Aleksandra Czerniecka, who is pursuing a master's degree in arts administration to add to a master's degree in piano performance, which she earned in 2021 at IU's world-renowned Jacobs School of Music. "I would like to come out of this program with a clear vision of how venture capital firms can get more engaged with the arts world and vice versa. I am not just thinking about venture philanthropy, but also how artistic ideas might transform into attractive business proposals. The IU Ventures Fellows program seemed like a great opportunity to 'infiltrate' the world of venture capital from the other side and to get to know it better."