About
Engler provides experiential, community-based learning to help students build their own enterprise from the ground up. Students engage in entrepreneurship the old-fashioned way: they just start doing it.
Courses
Classes in the program equip students to discover their entrepreneurial spark and build skills needed to succeed in the industry. We don’t take exams or do busywork. Our program revolves around hands-on work that will help students in the long run.
Our Headquarters
In January 2021, Engler settled into the 2nd floor of Dinsdale Learning Commons on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s East Campus. This space allows our individuals and collective aspirations to take flight in an environment that keeps our feet planted in the hard work of today and lets our sightline be open and unrestricted.
The Engler Entrepreneurship Program
At its heart Engler is an idea.
It means believing in the power of purpose-driven entrepreneurship and using entrepreneurship as a vehicle to pursue one’s specific purpose.
We believe each person was created with a unique, lifelong mission. We also believe entrepreneurship can be a tool to propel someone toward that particular calling, whatever it may be. This belief forms the foundation of Engler, and it gives meaning to all that we do.
Purpose-driven entrepreneurship is a powerful force for good.
There is no doubt in our minds that entrepreneurship has the power to solve real-world problems. Free enterprise can radically change lives because it leads to innovative solutions that support communities and grow economies.
Entrepreneurship provides the freedom to work toward one’s individual mission in a way that other career paths cannot. It allows an entrepreneur to customize his or her life around the values, principles and goals that are most important in their eyes. Using this freedom, Engler entrepreneurs solve problems and create sustainable change. Engler entrepreneurs exercise the freedom to build the kind of world they envision for themselves and others.
Focus on Community Building
When budding entrepreneurs pursue their purpose or mission, it also produces a positive, lasting impact on their communities and our society. Purpose-driven business owners don’t just sell out and move on to the next project — they grow the communities they’re in.
Engler helps aspiring entrepreneurs learn to launch businesses that do more than focus solely on profit, but rather serve people by providing genuine solutions to real problems for actual consumers. Likewise, this emphasis on community stands out in the way members of Engler support and encourage each other through the challenges of entrepreneurship.
If given the choice, we’d take a bunch of “base hit” businesses that are dedicated to helping communities thrive over one or two moonshot startups any day. We’re not here to create unicorns; we’re here to build up the entrepreneurs who will, in turn, build up their communities.
Built to Last
All entrepreneurs should strive to build things that endure. Engler emphasizes practicality and a healthy understanding of cash flow, not a “grow at all costs” mantra that sacrifices long-term vision for short-term gains. Instead, we take a practical, hands-on, blue-collar approach to entrepreneurship. We don’t shy away from sweat, hard work or physical products, nor do we avoid technology or high-tech businesses. Instead, we aspire to equip entrepreneurs to create companies that stand the test of time and become beacons in their communities, no matter the industry or field.
Rather than wait around for solutions to appear, Engler entrepreneurs roll up their sleeves and set out to develop their own. Much more than an individual endeavor, this process involves input and contributions from the whole community. Truly, the Engler ideal is available to everyone. Anybody who upholds these convictions and champions the idea of Engler — that of purpose-driven entrepreneurship and its values — is welcome to discover and pursue their purpose within this community.