Awards

The USASBE Excellence in Co-Curricular Innovation Awards celebrates the critical role of co-curricular programming in the overall entrepreneurship education ecosystem. This award category encourages and recognizes colleges and universities for innovative, co-curricular programs that demonstrate creativity, quality, sustainability, and impact. Nominees should illustrate best practice and be a model for others.

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The USASBE Excellence in Pedagogical Innovation Awards recognizes colleges and universities for innovation in entrepreneurial education at the course level. These innovations are assessed based on creativity, quality, sustainability, and impact. This award category celebrates innovation in entrepreneurial education at the course level.

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The USASBE Model Emerging and Re-Emerging Program Awards recognize colleges and universities for their efforts developing nascent entrepreneurship programs that demonstrate outstanding progress towards becoming comprehensive, bold, and innovative educational programs with early records of student impact.

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The USASBE Model Program Awards recognize colleges and universities that provide comprehensive, bold, high quality educational programs that train future generations of entrepreneurs. The program must have an established record of accomplishment for a minimum of three years. This award category recognizes the comprehensiveness of a curricular program.

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The Model University Entrepreneurship Accelerator/Incubator Award is for University-affiliated accelerator or incubator programs primarily designed to develop and support students or community members at the idea stage.

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The Model Community Entrepreneurship Accelerator/Incubator is for community* accelerator or incubator programs primarily designed to develop and support community entrepreneurship at any stage appropriate for the community context. This could mean an accelerator or incubator focused on any stage of the startup lifecycle (ideation through scaling). Qualifying programs for this award should receive less than 25% of their funding directly or indirectly from a university and it should not be branded as a university accelerator or incubator.

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Absolutely! Only one winner is named in each award category in any year. As a consequence, it is quite possible that one or more truly outstanding nominees may not receive the award simply because an even more outstanding candidate was nominated in the same year. To deal with this possibility, the following guidelines have been established:

• • The finalists for each award will be announced to the membership of USASBE and the public. The names of all other nominees will be kept confidential.

  • All non-winning nominees, including non-winning finalists, may request feedback on how they could strengthen their applications for future nominations and are encouraged to resubmit. There is no prescribed period that any nominee must wait before resubmitting their nomination materials for an award.

  • Universities or colleges that receive an award may not be nominated for that same award for a period of five years.

• Video Pitch: If your program is selected as a finalist, you will be asked to submit a video pitching your program, pedagogical innovation, or co-curricular innovation for the award. Videos may be up to 10 minutes in length. Finalists are encouraged to review the award-specific criteria along with the judging criteria before creating their video.

• Q&A with the Finalist Judges: One or more representatives of the nominated program will be invited to participate in a question and answer session with the finalist judges. These sessions will take place via Zoom prior to the USASBE 2026 conference.

• Selection of the Winners: The selection of the award winners will be made by the finalist judges.  Finalist judges will select winners based on: (a) the contents of their original nomination; (b) their video pitch for the award; and (c) the question and answer session.

• Announcement of Winners: Winners will be announced during the USASBE 2026 Conference.  Your program should have at least 1 representative at the USASBE 2026 Conference Awards Celebration if you are selected as a finalist.

• Note: Failure to submit a finalist video pitch, or participate in the finalist Q&A session with the judges will constitute forfeiture of the award.

• USASBE has the rights to publish the award nomination and related materials (PowerPoint slides, etc.) of award-winning entries to the USASBE website for use as a resource by USASBE members.

• One or more of the Finalists associated with the submission will attend the Conference to represent their nomination to the judges.

• Individuals who present before finalist judges agree to fulfill the service commitment included in the nomination package during the following five-year period.

Established in 2004, The Max S. Wortman, Jr. /USASBE Lifetime Achievement Award for Entrepreneurship was instituted on the occasion of the 22nd anniversary of the founding of the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (USASBE). The award is presented to a worthy recipient in recognition for a lifetime of entrepreneurial achievement that encompasses the ideals of entrepreneurial activity. Eligibility extends both to those whose life’s pursuits supported and advocated entrepreneurial ideals as well as those who have pursued a lifetime of successful venture creation. The Awards Committee shall consider the originality, depth, breadth and impact of the entire body of the nominees'  entrepreneurial pursuits and impact.

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The Entrepreneurship Educator of the Year is given to a mid-career individual who has provided distinguished educational leadership within the field of entrepreneurship. Winners will typically have contributed advancements to the way in which educators think about and approach entrepreneurship teaching and learning.

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John E. Hughes was born in February, 1927; dropped out of high school in 1944, volunteered for military service in World War II, serving with the parachute infantry. After leaving the service, he obtained a high school GED in 1947, and went on to receive his C.P.A. certificate, from the University of Illinois in 1957. In 1968, he founded his own C.P.A.  firm.  After selling his firm, he went on to be an owner and CEO at Archibald/Fannie May Candy Shops, Inc. from 1981 through 1991, selling his interest in October 1991. Mr. Hughes is passionate about self-employment and its positive impact on individuals and communities, which is why this award was established in his name supported by the Coleman Foundation where Mr. Hughes was Board Chairman Emeritus.

Revised in 2018, The John E. Hughes Award for Entrepreneurial Achievement recognizes an individual who, through significant and sustained entrepreneurial initiatives, has demonstrated a unique ability to accept and manage risk, exercise personal control, and acquire personal reward. The recipients should be an entrepreneur (new venture, corporate, and/or social) that is committed to entrepreneurship education and has demonstrated impact on the field of entrepreneurship, community leadership and philanthropic giving.

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The Ray Smilor Volunteer of the Year is given to an individual who has provided exceptional service to USASBE over the last year. This award is nominated by the USASBE Chair in collaboration with USASBE HQ, and approved by the Board of Directors.

The 3E Awards, hosted by the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (USASBE), celebrate excellence in Entrepreneurial Experiential Education (3E). The awards started from George Washington University's 3e-Learning Project to recognize innovative and effective teaching tools designed to enhance the learning experience for students studying entrepreneurship, small business, and new venture development.

Entrepreneurial experiential exercises encompass a wide range of teaching methods, including class exercises, games, projects, and experiments. These tools are created by educators to engage students actively and help them grasp the concepts and practices of entrepreneurship. By sharing these resources, the 3E Awards aim to foster a vibrant community of entrepreneurship educators and promote best practices in experiential learning.

Each year, USASBE invites educators to submit their most impactful and creative entrepreneurial experiential exercises to the 3E Awards competition. From the pool of submissions to the Competitive Experiential Exercises track, reviewers select up to 10 finalists who are then invited to present their ideas at the Annual USASBE Conference. This event provides a platform for educators to showcase their innovative teaching methods, learn from their peers, and inspire others to adopt and adapt these tools in their own classrooms.

The 3E Awards not only recognize the outstanding contributions of individual educators but also serve as a valuable resource for the entire entrepreneurship education community. By collecting and disseminating these entrepreneurial experiential exercises, USASBE enables instructors to access a wealth of teaching materials and incorporate them into their curricula, ultimately benefiting students and enhancing the quality of entrepreneurship education worldwide.

• Best New Scholar Paper Award
• Best Empirical Paper Award
• Best Conceptual Paper Award
• Best Overall Paper Award

To apply for these awards submit a paper to the Competitive Research Track.

Submissions Will Open Soon

A number of Special Interest Groups (SIGs) have put together awards for discipline-specific areas of entrepreneurship education and ecosystem builders. Please review the list below and check out the criteria for the various award categories.

• Minority and Women in Entrepreneurship SIG
• Online Entrepreneurship Education
• Social Entrepreneurship