Welcome to the CIE!
NCC's Follett Family Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) is a space that gives flight to the imagination. It's easy to picture a future Oprah Winfrey in one of the brainstorming nooks, designing plans for a media empire. Or a would-be Steve Jobs, hunched over a computer and furiously typing. At workstations in the center's Fab Lab, you can visualize the next Thomas Edison creating a prototype for a world-changing invention.
Even a future J.K. Rowling, sipping a cup of coffee from the Southside Center's new eatery The Zime, as she takes advantage of the natural light and the space designed to enhance creativity, allowing the surroundings to inspire a magical new world.
Or a conference table full of students and community members strategizing the next big thing. The CIE is different for it gives the underprivileged and underserved entrepreneurial thinkers a platform to bring their ideas into reality.
The CIE understands entrepreneurship as a process of discovering opportunities. We understand entrepreneurial mindset as a set of skills that increase motivation. We embrace hustle, grit, and resiliency because they are the means by which we make our communities better, and help individuals to reach their full potential.
Mission, Vision & Values
To foster innovative thinking and creative use of technology to develop life skills that drive the mindset of success.
We are the college and community resource committed to supporting innovative thinking and entrepreneurial actions.
- Community: We are of, and for, a just and equitable community
- Creativity: We value collective and diverse imagination - any idea can be realized
- Curiosity and Innovation: We promote the discovery of inventive solutions to a wide range of business and social problems
- Opportunity: We embrace risks and learn from failure(s)
- Support: We are a collaborative space to exercise bravery and work through the intimidation of new and challenging ideas