Summer Away

Program Overview

The Shuford Program in Entrepreneurship partners with Honors Carolina for an immersive entrepreneurship experience in Manchester. Students live and work in an iconic city while completing the track course requirement of the Entrepreneurship minor. Through their coursework and additional programming, students will meet entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, product leaders, thought leaders, design thinkers, and industry leaders, visiting companies and venues at the heart of Manchester’s entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystem. Students complete ECON 327H and additional field work with a local soccer club.

This program explores the traditional sport revenue drivers with globally renowned soccer clubs leading the charge of innovation in the sports industry. Course content will dive into the digitization of sports as well as sports verticals with high growth and low entry-barriers. Students will work together to develop a sports startup with a coinciding presentation and website helping them to turn an idea into an enterprise. By the end of the program, students will be able to discover, ideate, validate, and accelerate sports ventures. Students earn 3 credit hours through 1 required course and complete field work; they remain enrolled at UNC-Chapel Hill with a summer term’s work going toward general education and major or minor requirements. Field work provides valuable educational experiences in a cross-cultural context and and satisfies the Shuford Program requirement for students who are admitted to the minor at the time of the program.

Field work placements combined with academic coursework allow students to appreciate connections between theory and practice and gain exposure to potential career choices. Students will work in groups with a local soccer club, mostly Manchester City FC, to complete a market research report and design sprint.