InNOLEvation® Mindset Host Mark McNees sits down with May Wang, Student Program Coordinator at FSU’s Jim Moran College of Entrepreneurship, about how she supports student entrepreneurs through co-curricular opportunities such as mentoring, workshops, competitions, and grant funding. They break down the two-semester InNOLEvation® Challenge, including its stages, AI-driven planning tools, open workshops, finalist banquet, and the use of outside judges. May shares 2024–2025 activity numbers (300+ students mentored, 100+ events, 2,000+ participants), highlights programs like Ideathon, microgrants (over $50,000 awarded; up to $5,000 each), Mentor Night, Market Wednesday tables, and the Entrepreneurship Expo. She also introduces StartupTree and the new InNOLEvation Marketplace directory. They discuss resilience and coachability, and May explains iGEM’s structure, FSU’s recent gold medals, and efforts to streamline commercialization pathways.

00:00 Meet May Wang

00:42 What Student Programs Do

01:57 InNOLEvation® Challenge Overview

03:04 Stages Tools And Workshops

05:20 Finals Banquet And Judges

07:06 Podcast Origin Story

10:47 Year Round Programs By Numbers

11:46 Ideathon And Community Outreach

17:06 StartupTree Opportunity Hub

20:24 Microgrants And Free Funding

23:38 Competitions Prize Money

25:45 Market Wednesday Tables

26:47 Mentor Night Networking

28:49 FSU Funding Support

29:47 Entrepreneurship Expo

33:32 Resilience And Feedback

40:34 Pitching Skills And Badges

43:11 Innovation Marketplace Launch

45:41 iGEM Program Overview

50:47 Building Commercialization Pathways

53:56 Advice And Closing Thoughts