New Baker Institute Program Promotes Diversity In Entrepreneurship

Sareena Karim ’22 remembers the first time she pitched the idea for her custom hair care company, Foli-Q, at the EUREKA! Venture Program Pitch Night powered by Lehigh’s Baker Institute for Entrepreneurship, Creativity & Innovation.

Karim is the daughter of an African American mother and Bangladeshi father, and she has struggled since she was a young girl to find a hair care routine that enhanced her long curls without weighing them down or creating frizz.

A bioengineering major with a minor in entrepreneurship, Karim designed her product from personal experience. She had the educational background and drive to get her company started, but Karim admits it was intimidating as a minority woman.

“A lot of times when you think of a business owner, you think of a white man. You don’t often see women in that role,” Karim said. “People tend to gravitate toward groups of people who look like them, so if minority groups aren’t represented, there will be less minority groups in that field and less attracted to it.”

It’s an issue that Lehigh’s Baker Institute is tackling with the launch of Rightful Inclusive Student Entrepreneurship, or R.I.S.E. What is now a research-backed initiative with goals to improve diversity, inclusion and equity in Baker Institute programs, R.I.S.E. began as a grassroots effort to explore a long-time gender imbalance in student entrepreneurship on campus.

The effort found momentum when Baker Institute Executive Director Lisa Getzler recognized that far fewer women than men were proposing student venture projects during the institute’s EUREKA! Venture Program Pitch Nights, a monthly initiative that allows students to pitch business ideas to a panel of reviewers, with an opportunity to win funding, mentoring and other resources to help get their ideas off the ground.

While the numbers of men and women in Lehigh’s introductory Entrepreneurship 101 course have consistently shown an even balance, a disparity grows sharply at the more advanced level. The percentage of women putting forward ideas during pitch nights has remained in the range of 10% to 15%.

Getzler noted that while fewer women pitched student venture projects, the ones who did pitch excelled—50% of the Baker Institute’s EUREKA! Joan F. and John M.Thalheimer ’55 Grand Prize winners in the last 10 years have been women. The grand prize competition is a culminating event that recognizes the three top performing student ventures, awarding $5,000 to the winner. These numbers mean that while only 1.5 in 10 pitches are given by women, 50% of those who make the most progress are women.

As is the case in many business settings, Getzler also finds that Lehigh women entrepreneurs often hesitate to put themselves forward until they feel they have all the assets and knowledge they need to succeed. “That could be partly because of role modeling, not seeing themselves in a world of entrepreneurial founders at as great a rate as those who identify as male,” Getzler said. “We recognize that in the U.S. and around the globe, women participate in entrepreneurial endeavors at a lower rate than men.”

"A report on gender stereotypes in entrepreneurship from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation notes that women experience a unique set of barriers to entrepreneurship. Not only are they often hindered when they seek financial and social support for their entrepreneurial ventures, but they also may be discouraged from seeking out entrepreneurship as a viable career path. These findings align with and support patterns in gender imbalance that the Institute sees across campus as well.

“How do we try to level the playing field for Lehigh women?” Getzler asked.

Not Just a Gender Disparity

Getzler is a member of the Diana International Research Institute, which is part of Babson College’s Center for Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership in Wellesley, Massachusetts, an organization that focuses on closing the gender gap in entrepreneurial business development.

This pause offered Getzler an opportunity to take a step back and further explore the identities of those students participating in Baker’s programs. It became clear that disparities in participation rates existed across additional underrepresented groups on campus beyond the gender gap, she said.

“Gender is still the largest gap in parity in entrepreneurial opportunities at Lehigh, but not to be ignored are the other areas where our diverse population is not mirrored in the diversity that makes up our entrepreneurship students,” Getzler said.

Lifting Up New Voices

After expanding its efforts in diversity, inclusion, equity and belonging to all underrepresented groups on campus, the Baker Institute formally announced the creation of R.I.S.E. It hired graduate student

Karim went on to win the EUREKA! program’s Michael W. Levin ’87 Advanced Technology Award, given to an engineering student for developing new technologies, and the R.K. Laros Foundation Endowed Prize for Entrepreneurship, Creativity and Innovation, to recognize students who have participated in Baker Institute programs and demonstrated entrepreneurial spirit. Karim was also a finalist for the Joan F. and John M. Thalheimer ’55 Grand Prize.

Since Karim’s business launched in April 2020, she has sold more than 1,400 orders of Foli-Q.

Reflections on Confidence, Skills and a Powerful Network

It was ultimately a boost in confidence that helped many Baker participants get their ideas off the ground, including Eve Freed ’21, an IDEAS major who said participating in Baker was transformational for her.

Gardell, who majored in business information systems with a minor in entrepreneurship, went on to earn a technical entrepreneurship master’s. She always wanted to start a business and developed the idea for Goblies while attempting to make an egg out of soap during a graduate school homework assignment exploring manufacturing techniques. Gardell met a lot of women leaders and entrepreneurs through Baker’s offerings and was grateful for the experience.

“A lot of the time, when really big things happened with the business, there were other women in the room—sometimes it was all women in the room,” Gardell said. “I think, ultimately, having women successful in all levels of business and decision-making definitely benefited me from the bottom up.”

Friedman helped Gardell attend the 2016 International Toy Fair in New York, where retailers make decisions about whether they want to buy a product. Gardell and her toy company, Mezzimatic LLC, received a lot of attention at the show. CNBC named Goblies one of the hottest toys at the fair.

Friedman, who graduated with a degree in business and economics (accounting), has been working with the Baker Institute for about a decade as an advisor and ultimately serving as chair of the Baker Institute
Advisory Council.

A Legacy of Entrepreneurship

The late Dexter Baker was a part-time student in 1957 in Lehigh’s MBA program when he was challenged by one of his professors to think outside the box when crafting his thesis. Baker used the opportunity to create a plan for his employer, the gas and chemical supplier Air Products, to enter the overseas market. Baker joined Air Products in 1952 and went on to establish the company’s first international division. He was chairman of the board and CEO of the Allentown-based company when he retired in 1992.

In 2010, his vision was realized as the Baker Institute for Entrepreneurship, Creativity & Innovation.

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Encouraging Women Entrepreneurs at Lehigh

For the sixth year, Lehigh @NasdaqCenter, in partnership with P.C. Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Science, is offering “Women in Technology & Innovation.” This course introduces students to women leaders in Silicon Valley.