BEN-GURION UNIVERSITY | THE WAY FORWARD

The Ingerman Family Innovation Hub serves as the heart of the Yazamut 360° student experience. In this vibrant space, students, faculty members, and entrepreneurs regularly gather to strategize, hear featured industry experts, and learn about entrepreneurship, ultimately putting the students on a path to promising future career prospects and networks. We are pleased to introduce some of Yazamut 360°‘s flagship programs, each of which has been enhanced with donor support. Each program equips students with entrepreneurial skills and prepares graduates to take on leadership roles in top companies, launch ventures, and shape Israel’s innovation ecosystem, and in this way, donor impact propagates, transforming students and Israeli society. Cactus Capital and the Cactus Academy: Empowering Student Entrepreneurs and Educating Tomorrow’s Venture Capitalists An entirely student-run venture-capital fund, Cactus Capital offers BGU students the opportunity to launch a startup or social project while pursuing their degrees. Cactus Capital’s team selects a portfolio of 7-8 student startups per year, each of which receives up to $30,000 in seed funding. Cactus Academy’s semester

long course trains undergraduates to identify investment opportunities and evaluate early stage companies; alumni can serve as analysts and mentors for Cactus Capital companies. The experience is life-changing and empowering, creating new opportunities for all involved.

LEADERS: Merging Leadership, Entrepreneurship, and Academic Development

A year-long, highly selective course for academic credit run jointly with BGU’s Guilford Glazer Faculty of Business and Management, LEADERS enables a diverse cohort of outstanding undergraduates from every faculty the chance to launch their own company. Through workshops, mentorship, guest lectures, and training in cutting-edge technology, LEADERS students gain the skills needed to make a new enterprise succeed. Ira M. Ingerman Entrepreneur of the Year Award: Incentivizing Individual Initiative The Ira M. Ingerman Entrepreneur of the Year Award is granted to a BGU student whose new endeavor or entrepreneurial project has made a tangible contribution to a societal cause. While winners gain visibility for their

45