Director's Message
Welcome to Our Winter 2024 Issue!
When discussing risk and entrepreneurship in the same breath, it’s common to assume that risk refers to the career and economic risk of launching and building new, unproven ventures. But in reality, risk is scattered liberally throughout whatever life’s work one pursues.
In his latest book, SCU Professor Hersh Shefrin (Mario L. Belotti Professor of Finance, Leavey School of Business) describes research on how people evaluate risk, including assessments of gains and losses, perceptions of fear and hope, and personal aspirations.
In my career and life, I’ve learned that experience teaches good lessons about what is risky and what is not, especially with respect to the emotions of fear and hope. However, a strength of the Entrepreneurial Mindset is that it provides tools and processes that can be used to help assess and manage risk in a wide variety of situations, even when experience is lacking.
During my years working in technology firms, risk mitigation was a constant element of our management process, whether for building new technologies and new products, entering new markets, leading teams, or setting budgets. In fact, at one of the companies I led, we established corporate goals to “retire” a long list of risks that we identified at the company's founding. Every day and every meeting involved some discussion of how risk was being managed.
In this newsletter, we offer different perspectives on how students, staff, faculty, and alumni have taken risks in their lives and the tools they’ve found helpful in achieving successful outcomes.
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We hope you enjoy this issue!
Keep reading,
Chris Norris, Executive Director
Ciocca Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship |
 | Check out our Monthly Entrepreneurs' Meetup! The BVA Cafe takes place every Third Thursday of the month at the BVA House (3230 The Alameda). This is where entrepreneurs, mentors, advisors and entrepreneurship curious gather. Click here to register! |
 | The Bronco Ventures Accelerator Prep School provides a supportive, dynamic, and hands-on program that will spark innovation and prepare you to push your venture forward. You will learn how to take your business idea and expand it through roadmapping, problem solving, and pitch development. Prep School will help you get ready to apply to the BVA summer program or other great Silicon Valley accelerators. Apply Today! |
Perspectives  | Professor Pedro Nava recounts his experiences coming from a family of migrant farm workers who modeled taking risks to secure a better quality of life for their children. Read here to learn how the entrepreneurial mindset equips immigrant families and inspires future generations. |
 | Data Scientist and Alumna Alejandra Budar '17 shares about how she is able to make decisions while navigating uncertainty. Read here for Alejandra's story of moving from a corporate Silicon Valley position to starting a new chapter in Mexico City. |
 | Innovation Fellow '21-'23, Nicholas Truong '24 shares about how his desire to help others led him on a path of starting new ventures and surprising discovery. Read here to learn how he found answers to his questions regarding innovation and design along with his Innovation Fellows partners and instructors. |
 | Ciocca Center's Mindset Scholar, Ryan Pool ' 27 became an entrepreneur when he was six years old. Ryan shares how despite being an entrepreneur, he lacked an entrepreneurial mindset. Read here about why risk aversion can be costly and how he is learning the immense value of failure. |
Ciocca Center Presents...  | In collaboration with the Career Center, Ciocca Center held the Start-Ups Meetup, a networking-focused recruitment event! For those interested in working at a startup, this gathering offered an opportunity for students to have 1:1 conversations with up and coming companies. Three of the startups were from student founders involved with Ciocca Center programs! |
 | Congratulations Team California Wildlife Adventure! Dalia Suszko '24, Gabe Labadie '25, Andrew Frances Pintor '27, Joaquin Orozco '27, and Morgan Watts '24 took the first place prize for Hack 4 Humanity 2024! H4H brings together the diverse members of our campus to use their skills to create something that will add value to our society. |
Broncos, Actually  | Meet Grace Ling '19 '21, Double Bronco and founder of Design Buddies, the world's largest design community! Watch here to learn how taking risks transformed Grace's life, propelling her into an adventure that she loves to share with those around her. |
Student Stories  | Global VCIC is the world’s largest venture capital competition with over 120 university and graduate school teams competing, where students get to be VCs for the day. SCU sent one undergraduate team, selected from our Venture Virtuoso program, and one graduate team to the Venture Capital Investment Competition! Congratulations to our student teams! |
 | We officially kicked off our Winter Term in January with swag, food, and great people! BEACH provides law and business students with an experiential opportunity to team up with industry professionals, receive clients, and advise companies on legal or business related issues. Sign up to be a part of our Fall 2024 Cohort here! |
 | Apply for our next Innovation Fellows 2024-2025 Cohort! Innovation Fellows focus on finding a pain point on our SCU campus and using design thinking methods and empathy to identify and implement solutions. Click here to apply! |
 | Do you have a business idea? Do you love competitions? Ciocca Center's Business Pitch Competition is happening on May 17th, with workshops and practice sessions leading up to it. SCU students from all disciplines are welcome! Sign-up here! Multiple prizes are being awarded - including Most Interdisciplinary and Greatest Social Benefit. |
A Well-Lighted Place  | Do you have a paper accepted for publication/presentation at a conference/symposia or publication in a journal? Is It focused on an Entrepreneurial Topic? If so, consider applying for travel or publication support! Ciocca Center's travel or publication grant includes airfare, hotel, rental car and conference registration up to $3,000/project. Apply Now! |
 | Ciocca Center is currently accepting proposals for original research! While this is an open call for proposals, we are particularly interested in topics that address the intersection between innovation and entrepreneurship with current societal challenges. Awards are significant, up to $20,000 each, with an application deadline of April 2, 2024. View the complete Call for Proposals 2024. |
 | Ciocca Center accepts Curricular Development Proposals on a rolling basis. The objective of this program is to support the development of new courses, modules, and programs that address themes that broadly relate to the topics of innovation and the entrepreneurial mindset. Learn more. |
 | Learn more about our current research and curriculum development projects here! |
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Upcoming Events
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BVA Cafe
6:30 p.m., 3230 The Alameda, Santa Clara, CA 95053
WHAT: We call it “BVA Cafe” where CAFE stands for: Calling All Founders & Entrepreneurs
Meet and mingle with fellow BVA entrepreneurs, mentors, advisors and entrepreneurship-curious. Enjoy small bites while hearing updates from BVA Alumni and meeting new startup founders.
WHEN: The third Thursday of each month (except November and December when it is on the second Thursday), at 6:30 PM
WHERE: BVA House, 3230 The Alameda (2 doors North of the Hut, across from 7-11). We frequently adjourn to the Hut for adult beverages afterward.
BVA CAFE is open to all and free of charge; but, Registration is required.
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BVA Cafe
6:30 p.m., 3230 The Alameda, Santa Clara, CA 95053
WHAT: We call it “BVA Cafe” where CAFE stands for: Calling All Founders & Entrepreneurs
Meet and mingle with fellow BVA entrepreneurs, mentors, advisors and entrepreneurship-curious. Enjoy small bites while hearing updates from BVA Alumni and meeting new startup founders.
WHEN: Usually, the third Thursday of each month (except November and December when it is on the second Thursday), at 6:30 PM
WHERE: BVA House, 3230 The Alameda (2 doors North of the Hut, across from 7-11). We frequently adjourn to the Hut for adult beverages afterward.
BVA CAFE is open to all and free of charge; but, Registration is required.
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Open for Business
5 p.m., Lucas Hall Santa Clara University
Ciocca Center is holding our annual Open for Business! event on Thursday, October 24th from 5-6:30 pm for all of the students in the Fall BUSN 70 (Contemporary Business Issues)!
Register Here!
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BVA Cafe
6:30 p.m., 3230 The Alameda, Santa Clara, CA 95053
WHAT: We call it “BVA Cafe” where CAFE stands for: Calling All Founders & Entrepreneurs
Meet and mingle with fellow BVA entrepreneurs, mentors, advisors and entrepreneurship-curious. Enjoy small bites while hearing updates from BVA Alumni and meeting new startup founders.
WHEN: The third Thursday of each month (except November and December when it is on the second Thursday), at 6:30 PM
WHERE: BVA House, 3230 The Alameda (2 doors North of the Hut, across from 7-11). We frequently adjourn to the Hut for adult beverages afterward.
BVA CAFE is open to all and free of charge; but, Registration is required.
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