There is no single timeline for becoming an entrepreneur.

Emily Feistritzer began her career as a nun, became an educator, and then an advocate for education reform. Later in life, she launched an education company that would be acquired after nine years.

Now, Feistritzer is investing in student entrepreneurs who are still at the beginning of their journeys.

Feistritzer has made an endowed gift to the Kogod School of Business’s business incubator at the Veloric Center for Entrepreneurship. The program will be renamed the Feistritzer Innovation Lab in her honor, creating a permanent source of support for students as they develop, test, and grow new ventures.

A Different Path to Entrepreneurship

Feistritzer drew on decades of experience in education to build a company focused on teacher certification. Her entrepreneurial journey now informs her commitment to supporting future founders.

“Today’s student entrepreneurs are tomorrow’s leaders and game changers,” Feistritzer said. “It is a privilege to support their innovative ideas and plans for the future.”

“I have always been a believer in ‘if you can dream it, it can come true.’ Helping equip the next generation of entrepreneurs to realize their dreams and build business models that have real impact is now my dream coming true.”

How Will the Feistritzer Innovation Lab Help Student Entrepreneurs?

The Feistritzer Innovation Lab will build on the existing business incubator at Kogod’s Veloric Center for Entrepreneurship, where student founders develop ventures at different stages. The endowed gift will provide ongoing resources to help students move from an idea toward a viable venture, including opportunities to test assumptions, evaluate business models, and determine what needs to change as their businesses develop.

Danielle Vogel, Director of the Veloric Center for Entrepreneurship, said the gift will strengthen the center’s ability to support founders working across different types of ventures.

“Emily's extraordinarily generous gift will allow us to provide meaningful support to student-founders as they ideate, launch and scale their for-profit ventures, social enterprises and STEM innovations,” Vogel said. “At the Veloric Center, we believe that the best possible way to learn is by doing, and this gift ensures that we will be able to prepare generations of entrepreneurs to build, test, learn, and lead.”

Senior Veloric Center Fellow Tommy White added, “The Emily Feistritzer Innovation Lab will be a game changer for our students. The additional financial resources available to student ventures will give aspiring entrepreneurs the opportunity to test their ideas, validate their business models, and take meaningful steps toward turning their entrepreneurial ambitions into reality.”

The endowment means this support is designed to extend well beyond a single cohort.

“Most importantly, because this is an endowed fund, these resources will support generations of students—ultimately impacting hundreds of aspiring student entrepreneurs for years to come,” White said.

What Do Student Founders Gain From an Innovation Lab?

For students who have already participated in Kogod’s incubator program/innovation lab, some of the program’s values come from having room to experiment without having to figure everything out alone.

Andrew Bird experienced the program first as a founder and later as a peer mentor. He said the program balanced independence with the guidance early-stage entrepreneurs need.

“As a founder, one of the things I valued most about the support was that the staff & faculty understood you cannot simply tell an entrepreneur what to do,” Bird said. “They gave me the space to explore ideas, test assumptions, make adjustments, and sometimes discover for myself what would or would not work, while still providing the guardrails, challenge, and accountability needed to keep moving forward.”

Bird gained another perspective on the program when he returned as a peer mentor.

“Later, as a peer mentor, I gained an even greater appreciation for how important that environment is for emerging founders,” he said. “This investment will help ensure future students have the same opportunity to experiment, learn, be challenged, and develop the confidence and discipline needed to turn an idea into something real.”

For peer mentor Elli Wachtman, the program supported the development of Sikhona Rescue Center, which was founded to provide a physically and psychologically safe space for survivors of gender-based violence in Kenya.

Wachtman credits the program’s community, feedback, and access to other founders as important parts of Sikhona’s development.

“Sikhona Rescue Centre has housed, empowered, and reintegrated 78 survivors of gender-based violence because the program acknowledged our mission, challenged us to iterate, and connected us with essential resources … the most impactful of which being other early-stage founders,” Wachtman said.

Bird and Wachtman illustrate different ways founders can use entrepreneurial program support. Bird describes a place to test assumptions and develop the discipline required to build a venture. Wachtman points to the importance of iteration, resources, and a community of people confronting similar early-stage challenges.

The Feistritzer Innovation Lab will provide a permanent foundation for that work.

Why Does Supporting the Next Generation of Entrepreneurs Matter?

Feistritzer’s career is a reminder that entrepreneurship can begin after decades spent building expertise in another field—and that there is no single route into starting a business.

The Feistritzer Innovation Lab will support Kogod students at an earlier point in their own entrepreneurial paths. Students will have resources to develop ideas, test whether those ideas work, learn from other founders, and make informed decisions about what comes next.

Feistritzer’s endowment makes that support a permanent part of the Veloric Center, extending her investment beyond today’s student founders to generations of entrepreneurs still to come.