Residential Scholarship Program
Live, Create, Launch at Lassonde Studios
The Lassonde Founders residential scholarship program brings together student leaders, builders, and entrepreneurs from across the nation to live, create, and launch at Lassonde Studios. It is a co-curricular program for undergraduate and graduate students from any major who want to launch or grow a company, contribute their skills to a startup, or simply explore what entrepreneurship looks like from the inside. Supported by the Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute — a top-10 ranked division of the David Eccles School of Business at the University of Utah — Lassonde Founders work together throughout their college experience to identify real problems and solve them creatively, whether as a founder, co-founder, or key contributor. Students receive a partial scholarship to live at Lassonde Studios, a state-of-the-art facility in the heart of campus.
Why Join Lassonde Founders?
Students in the Lassonde Founders program join a thriving community of the best student entrepreneurs, builders, and leaders. These are students who know what they want and are ready do what it takes to dream big, create their futures, and change the world.
Lassonde Founders live, create, launch together at Lassonde Studios. They have access to dedicated space, prototyping workshops, and peer coaching. Everything offered by the Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute provides a complete platform to launch or grow your startup.
The David Eccles School of Business is ranked among the top 10 schools in the country for entrepreneurship education by the Princeton Review and U.S. News & World Report. The ranking recognizes the variety, depth, and quality of opportunities for students who want to learn how to launch companies.
New ideas and companies come from students with different majors, interests, and backgrounds working together. We have over 50 different majors living at Lassonde Studios every year.
Students in the Lassonde Founders program study at the University of Utah, situated against the Wasatch Mountains. The U and Salt Lake City have been recognized as national leaders in entrepreneurship and technology commercialization. Combined with unmatched access to the outdoors, Lassonde Founders can maintain a well-balanced life.
Entrepreneurship is much more than starting a company. It is a way of thinking that enables students to work on interdisciplinary teams, identify opportunities, learn how to add value, and create a company, idea, or impact. Students in Lassonde Founders gain expertise and skills in all these areas.
Entrepreneurship is all about adding value. Entrepreneurs add value to a product, a team, an industry, or an idea. Students in the Lassonde Founders program learn how to master the art of identifying opportunities to add value and then following through with a plan to do it.
Students in the Lassonde Founders program get access to many resources to help them develop their ideas through the Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute. Lassonde resources include milestone grants, scholarships, makerspace, meetups, and more.
Lassonde Founders learn by applying what they are studying in their majors to a project that enables them to demonstrate an entrepreneurial mindset. Whether they are studying English or accounting, Lassonde Founders complete the program with a better understanding of what it takes to bring an entrepreneurial mindset to their majors.
Students in the Lassonde Founders program join a thriving entrepreneur community at the University of Utah and beyond. Thousands of students are engaged in entrepreneurship on campus, and the program provides a great way to get involved.
Watch ‘Lassonde is the Place’
Application Process
Students can apply for the Lassonde Founders program by completing the related section of the Lassonde Studios resident application. It is a competitive application process. The application for the following academic year typically opens in August during the previous year, and the priority application deadline is in early January. Students are encouraged to apply by the priority deadline, but they can still apply after, and applications will be considered as space is available. Students are evaluated primarily based on their previous entrepreneurial experience. Students also need to apply and be accepted to the University of Utah. Students must live in the Lassonde Studios to participate and receive their scholarship.
