Kern Family Foundation Boosts Lawrence Tech’s Engineering Entrepreneurs

Impressed by Lawrence Technological University’s commitment to educating business-savvy engineers, the Kern Family Foundation in Wisconsin has made a three-year, $270,000 grant to support the University’s innovative entrepreneurial teaching and learning program.

The Kern grant supports expansion of Lawrence Tech’s entrepreneurial skills and certificate program within the University’s Lear Entrepreneurial Center, founded in 2002 with support from Lear Corporation to help create undergraduate engineering students who are both technologically adept and business savvy. The Kern grant will be used to enhance entrepreneurial teaching, to provide students with increased opportunities for real-world experience, and to attract and retain top students, particularly minorities and women. The funds will specifically support:

• The Education Innovation Collaborative (EIC), which promotes faculty development through workshops on effective teaching techniques and integrating entrepreneurship into the classroom.

• Venture capital grants for student corporations and program development assistance from industry professionals and entrepreneurs to boost students’ real-world experience.

• Increased participation in the entrepreneurial program by developing creative ways to engage students and help them build skills to succeed in corporate, small business, and start-up environments.

Part of the grant application process involved hosting a site visit for foundation officials, which was coordinated by Lawrence Tech faculty Greg Feierfeil, mechanical engineering professor and director of the Entrepreneurial Engineering Program; Donald Carpenter, civil engineering professor anddirector of the Education Innovation Collaborative; and Laird E. Johnston, dean of the College of Engineering. These three also traveled to Wisconsin to meet Foundation directors Robert and Patricia Kern.

“Timely development of these strategies would not be possible without the generosity of the Kern Family Foundation grant,” said Feierfeil. “Our Entrepreneurial Program’s mission and the focus of the Kern Family Foundation converge to produce business-savvy engineering graduates capable of bringing ideas and products to market.”

Established by entrepreneurial engineer and businessman Robert D. Kern and his wife, Patricia, the Kern Family Foundation opened a one-time competition for grants to Midwest private engineering schools dedicated to preparing industry-ready graduates. Lawrence Tech’s technical instruction with its emphasis on creativity, business skills and real-world experience, matched the Kern Family Foundation’s focused approach.

The Foundation’s giving grew out of the Kern’s personal story. As a young engineer in the 1950s, Robert Kern started a generator manufacturing business in his garage in Waukesha, Wis., with his wife, and one assistant. His start-up venture grew dramatically, and today, Generac Power Systems is a leading producer of diesel- and gas-fueled generator sets ranging up to 2,000 kilowatts. In addition, Generac small engines power everything from RV generators to lawn and garden equipment.

Selling off part of the business in 1998 helped establish the Kern Family Foundation as a catalyst for social change, with a mission is to enhance and encourage moral and ethical values in society. The majority of funding goes to systemic solutions in education at the K-12 level, and at pre-selected seminaries and in engineering.

Lawrence Technological University offers more than 50 undergraduate, master’s and doctoral degree programs in Colleges of Architecture and Design, Arts and Sciences, Engineering, and Management. Lawrence Tech pioneered the offering of day and evening classes more than 70 years ago, and now has a growing number of weekend programs.

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