New building purchased for creative labs

Southeast Missouri State University's Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship is creating a new destination for students with the new Creative Labs and Industries Incubator.

The center made the official announcement on Sept. 28 at the groundbreaking ceremony during Southeast's Entrepreneurship Week. The building already has been purchased, and construction is expected to start this winter. The lab is expected to open in August 2014.

The building, which is located on Broadway, will feature a modern, industrial interior complete with a coffee bar. The lab will include several pieces of new technology, such as 3-D modeling and letterpress printers.

A retail boutique, called Sole Creations, also will be in the lab. The boutique will allow students to create and market their products and businesses to the public.

Heather Holdman, a project coordinator for the center, believes that these elements will inspire students' entrepreneurial abilities.

"You're going to walk in, and you're going to see this 3-D printer and this old letterpress," Holdman said. "If that doesn't get you excited and get you creative and innovative to go through the rest of the [lab], I don't what else will."

A Student Advisory Committee is also involved in making several decisions for the lab. So far the students have made recommendations to the Faculty Advisory Board about how the lab should look and what the feel of the lab should be. The committee is also looking at the different departments of the incubator and what each department is looking for in the lab.

"While the students may not get the final say, we're answering all those questions as if it's up to us to plan it because that was what [the executive director of the center] initially charged us with," Holt Walker, head of the Student Advisory Committee, said. "If you had a dream laboratory to run, as students, how would you do it? That's basically the overall question we're trying to answer."

Walker said that he wanted to make sure that the building did not have a "university feel" to it. He wanted it to avoid heavy regulation and instead focus on the human interactions that would take place in the lab.

Student Advisory Committee member Chris Carnell said that the lab will give students the tools that they need to further their entrepreneurial skills.

"With the economy being the way it is, it's not the same as it was for our parents," Carnell said. "You don't just get a job and keep it for 30 years. You need to create and value yourself. So we're giving [students] the ability to learn how to do that the right way, so they're not wondering what am I supposed to do?"

Walker also hopes that the lab will be an interactive place for students to explore different ideas outside of the university setting.

"We really want students, students who are looking to take their knowledge and passions outside the classroom, we want this to be a great vessel for that," Walker said.

The main purpose of the new lab is to inspire entrepreneurship. Carnell thinks that one way this will be accomplished is through the coffee bar in the building. The lab will work directly with a small village in Costa Rica which grows its own coffee beans.

"[Entrepreneurship] can be something as small as going to a village with 200 people and helping them better their lives with coffee," Carnell said. "That's pretty simple."