The Waynesburg University eHive is buzzing with surprises and celebrations after the celebration of its fifth birthday. Started on Oct. 5, 2018, the eHive had a lot more than just a birthday to celebrate. 

On Oct. 7, 2023, the Waynesburg University eHive won the award for the Outstanding Emerging Entrepreneurship Center. This award was given out by the Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers, or GCEC, at the Perot Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas, Texas. 

This comes just a year after the eHive was a finalist for this award in 2022. The award was a surprise since winners were not contacted prior to the ceremony. According to the GCEC website, in order to qualify for the award, the center had to be in operation for five years or less and have fewer than 5,000 students. 

Attending this event was Associate Professor of Business, W. Robert Stover chair of Entrepreneurial Leadership Program Melinda Walls. She was not sure that the judges would see the competitiveness of the eHive and wanted this type of success since the moment she got here. 

The amount of support the eHive gets from Waynesburg University President Douglas G. Lee gives the program a boost with the amount of support he provides since this program is a presidential initiative. Along with the support of the president and the donors, Walls gave credit to her colleagues. 

“This would not have been possible without Cassy and Professor Heisey and Lily Portman, and a number of our students and graduate students that have helped us be successful,” Walls said. 

Cassy Dorsch, a close colleague of Walls and the director of the eHive, believes that Walls was brought here for this reason. The Entrepreneurship Program oversees the eHive due to it being a presidential initiative. 

“We’ve really seen the interconnectedness of the eHive, our business coaching, the Nest, our makerspace,” Dorsch said. “Those things have set our program apart.” 

“Not only does the components of the eHive set it apart, but it does not have a University budget. The people within the eHive do their own fundraising and have donors in order to keep new things circling in the eHive.” Walls said, “In my mind, the thing that differentiates us is the way that we’ve been able to connect things,” Walls said. “We’ve had the luxury of starting with really nothing and then building things that can relate and support each other.” 

The eHive’s scholars program supports the students and helps out with the facility. They run things that spread awareness, as well as running the co curricular activities that are not connected with any classes. 

Learning labs like the makerspace and the Nest aids with the success of the eHive according to Walls. In the makerspace, products are made for the Nest by the faculty and students and they also have the opportunity to sell their own products. Students create prototyping and design work to figure out what is going to be sold in the store. 

“The eHive is kind of the connective tissue that puts everything together because that’s the front door for how people can get involved with all of these things,” Walls said.