Fall 2020 LPCE Report and Previous Funding Opportunities

The Lemann Program on Creativity and Entrepreneurship (LPCE) aims to help student teams and individuals grow ideas to transform society for the better. 

Read our November 2020 report now to learn more about how LPCE has been working towards a better normal!

Thanks to the boldness of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and the philanthropic generosity of Jorge Paulo Lemann ‘61, in Fall 2020, Harvard College launched a groundbreaking initiative for undergraduate students to make the liberal arts even more actionable at a crucial moment in history. The Lemann Program on Creativity and Entrepreneurship (LPCE) is preparing Harvard graduates to lead in a society that is grappling with the COVID-19 pandemic, health care disparities, and systemic racism.

Premised on the transformative vision of late Harvard professor Robert Lue, Richard L. Menschel Faculty Director of the Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning, the LPCE empowers undergraduate students to solve global challenges. With this addition to our liberal arts offerings, Harvard College’s mission to educate future leaders and to inspire every member of our community to strive toward a more just, fair, and promising world continues unabated and has grown even stronger.

The ethos behind our program was articulated beautifully by Lue: “The era of academics being somehow separated from the world of work is long gone,” he said. “It has been replaced by a society where individuals change their careers multiple times and often move between the spheres of academia and the workplace or have feet in both. The rate of change in both academia and the workplace is also faster than any other time in human history. So it is essential that higher education integrate the knowledge and skills from both domains to equip our students for a more dynamic world where they are not constrained intellectually to what has traditionally been in one or the other.”

In March 2020, Harvard College transitioned to virtual learning in response to public health concerns posed by the pandemic. At the same time, the LPCE team pivoted too. For this academic year we focused the LPCE on ideas and ventures and products that help build a “better normal” related to one or more of the following: the COVID-19 pandemic, racial injustice, and climate change. In addition, we strategically chose to build community remotely across the fall semester of 2020 and launch our first novel hands-on course, the Entrepreneurship StudioLab, in spring 2021.

To learn more about LPCE’s ongoing success in developing and strengthening the impulse toward innovation within Harvard undergraduate students, you can read our November 2020 report. This report covers:

• our community events, which take place via Zoom and thrive on the cross-pollination of creativity among students, faculty, industry experts, and practitioners.

• students’ venture ideas, which are funded by our new accelerator to inspire innovation and develop student cohorts for our spring courses while also growing the community.

• the StudioLabs, which are hands-on courses to help students hone key skills, including media development and the proper use of data, to further develop their entrepreneurial and creative mindsets.

• our team and partnerships, which are instrumental to the success of the LPCE and our ability to amplify our efforts and engage with stakeholders across the Harvard community and beyond

LPCE FALL 2020 ACCELERATOR PROGRAM

In Fall 2020, we launched the LPCE Accelerator as an opportunity for students to gain access to funding, mentorship, and events. At a glance, we awarded 50 ventures $250 seed funds, making a 157-person Accelerator community that represented 20 undergraduate concentrations and 7 graduate schools. Our community members also had access to 9 different events throughout the semester - including a pitch workshop, a community feedback session, and a mentoring and networking event - as well as mentors specific to their venture.

LPCE FALL 2020 LAUNCH FUNDS

In addition to the Accelerator, we also had an application for $10,000 Launch Funds. In December of 2020, three teams were awarded Launch Funds. The application consisted of a pitch deck (max 10 slides), a video (max 5 minutes), and an infographic. We highly encourage you to visit the Launch Funds page of our website to see the infographics for all of the applicants!

Judging rubrics for Fall 2020 Launch Funds Application:
Pitch video judging rubric
Infographic judging rubric