Southeast Community College President Dr. Jack Huck was presented the Entrepreneurial Presidents Award during the National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship’s 9th Annual Conference last week in Portland, Ore.
This award is presented to a college president who embraces entrepreneurial thinking and supports entrepreneurship education throughout the community.“I’m very grateful and humbled to have been chosen for this award,” Huck said. “While I collaborated with others in getting our overall entrepreneurship plan established, it’s really the current (Entrepreneurship) Center staff that deserves the credit. They have made it what it is today.”
In 2004, Huck and other SCC personnel began discussing the development of entrepreneurship at the College. When the former Gallup building in Lincoln became available, which is now the current site of the SCC Entrepreneurship Center, Huck said meeting the entrepreneurial needs of the College’s 15-county district was a huge consideration.
“It was somewhat serendipitous in the timing of it all,” Huck said. “We were looking for a new building and were interested in starting an entrepreneurship program. All the stars lined up correctly.”
In March 2006, SCC opened its Entrepreneurship Center at 285 S. 68th St. Place in Lincoln. Ten months later it hosted its first business incubator. Today the Center is a full-service resource hub providing business coaching, entrepreneurship education, community outreach, and business incubation. The building also is home to the Lincoln Public Schools Entrepreneurship Focus Program. Business support services such as Junior Achievement, Nebraska Business Development Corporation, S.C.O.R.E., and Community Development Resource Services also are housed in the building.