IES also offers a forum for instructors and researchers to collaborate and foster knowledge. Hills established the UIC Annual Research Symposium on Marketing and Entrepreneurship in 1987. Now in its 16th year, the group hosts a meeting every summer and publishes a book after each session that outlines its findings.

According to Tom Lumpkin, associate professor of managerial studies, the symposium serves two purposes.

While most entrepreneurial research has been conducted in the discipline of management, he says, "the goal of the symposium is to study an area of entrepreneurship that is unique — namely, the intersection of research at the marketing/entrepreneurship interface."

The meeting attracts international entrepreneurship faculty and is scheduled to convene this year at a European location. Between meetings, attendees are encouraged to participate in an online discussion forum.

The symposium's second function, says Lumpkin, is to maintain UIC's high profile. "Our name stays in circulation among entrepreneurship scholars all over the world, and it supports the leading role that UIC and IES have established in the field, as evidenced by the acclaim we've received."

One source of acclaim for lES is its national-award-winning Certificate in Business Administration Program. Nearly 1,200 entrepreneurs over the past 17 years have earned their certificate by attending eight weekend sessions over a four-month period at the University of Illinois' Oak Brook training center. Participants conclude the class with the preparation of a strategic plan for their business.

Another entrepreneurship program that has received its share of accolades is the Family Business Council, Launched in 1994, FBC serves the entrepreneurial community by addressing the unique problems that occur within family-run enterprises.

"If you think about family systems and business systems, they operate quite differently," says Dennis DuBois, FBC director. In business, for example, underperforming employees can simply be terminated. "But if that employee happens to be your younger brother, or your father — who's chairman of the board — and your mother wants the family to work well together — those factors introduce a different dynamic."

FBC offers a safe haven where family-run-business entrepreneurs can share best practices on how to keep company — and family relations — in working order.

Another service lES provides to the entrepreneurial community is recognition. Now in its 20th year, the Chicago Area Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame is composed of more than 200 local entrepreneurs who have demonstrated outstanding talent by founding or developing businesses in the Chicago area. Besides building relationships with outside businesses and providing well-deserved honors to those who maintain them, the Hall of Fame offers UIC students — and alumni — a distinct set of role models.

"The program shows students that normal, ordinary people can be successful," explains Robert Pritzker, recipient of the Hall of Fame's 2003 Lifetime Achievement Award.

Students are also an important part of the Hall of Fame selection process — they perform the first round of screening of nominees. By reviewing nominations and discussing qualifications, students are able to learn from what successful entrepreneurs have already done.

While IES continues to advance its goals through a growing variety of endeavors, Hills admits that seeing his program develop is like watching a personal enterprise prosper.

"In a way, we've been able to effect quite a set of new educational products, and we're delivering them within the context of a large university," he says. "As such, we recognize that our successes are, in large part, the result of efforts by many within the institute and the college, as well as those in Coleman Foundation and with other sponsors."

Meanwhile, Hills derives his own satisfaction from the program in a couple of ways: first, from receiving endorsement from Chicago-area businesses; and last, but not least, from watching students go on to become successful entrepreneurs.

"If you boil it all down, we're in the business of making students aware that entrepreneurship is truly a career path that they can consider pursuing," says Hills, "and to enhance their probabilities of success if they decide to go forward."