Celebrating Jennifer Capps’ Retirement

For over two decades, Jennifer Capps has embodied the mindset of “Think and Do.” She has been a leading force in entrepreneurship at NC State from its early days in the 2000s. From helping develop the entrepreneurship program to impacting thousands of students to showcasing entrepreneurship education models around the world, Capps has left a legacy on the Wolfpack community.

Effective this summer, she will retire from NC State. July 1, 2025, will be her last day with the university.

Joining the Wolfpack

For Capps, NC State was more than a place of employment. It was a second home as she graduated with two bachelor’s and a master’s degree from the university. After graduation, she looked towards starting a career at NC State in the Poole College of Management’s Entrepreneurship Education Initiative. The catch was that Capps would have to volunteer for the first few months while they raised the funds for the program. Luckily, her friends and family supported her on this journey to start something great.

The early days of entrepreneurship

In 2008, Tom Miller asked Capps to join him in building a university-wide entrepreneurship program. This marked the beginning of what is now the NC State Innovation and Entrepreneurship program.

The program started with three main goals. One of these was to create a space where all students could find their entrepreneurial home on campus — a space where beneficial collisions of interdisciplinary expertise would create magic.

While Capps and Miller expected this to be a five-year goal, someone at NC State heard about the idea, and it became a reality much sooner. Garage 1.0 was located in Research IV, a building that students did not have a reason to visit, as the space was small and hard to find. But thanks to Capps and Miller’s persistence, it was successful. The early days took a lot of grit, but working with motivated and innovative students kept Capps going.

Her dedication to helping students started early in her career. Capps reflected on becoming a mentor for a group of students who wanted to start an Entrepreneurship Student Ambassador program.

The cohort of students partnered with Coca-Cola to spearhead a recycling competition on campus. The group had students bringing bags upon bags of recycling to large dumpsters in the Brickyard to help their dorm win. Someone arranged for the group to be responsible for all of the recycling from the Carolina Hurricanes games for two weeks.

One day, an opportunity arose that needed immediate attention at the university. Of course, the group had just unloaded all of the Carolina Hurricanes’ recycling — which was full of beer cans — into the bins. Capps had to run across campus for a meeting that included the Provost and other leaders on campus in the same clothes she had worn to sort recycling. She was young and embarrassed at the image she was presenting, but knew the meeting was important. “In true Wolfpack form, everyone celebrated the dedication the students had to not only thinking about solving a recycling problem, but actually doing something about it,” said Capps.

A lasting legacy at NC State

Capps has been a fundamental part of launching and running entrepreneurship offerings at NC State, including the Miller Fellowship, competitions such as the VenturePack Challenge, mentorship programs across campus both in and out of the classroom, and supporting the development of programs and other events.

She has taught an introductory-level entrepreneurship course to over 6,000 students over the past two decades. In this role, she planted seeds of confidence, excitement and passion in many aspiring entrepreneurs. Capps said, “It is a special privilege to be in a position to open someone’s eyes to an opportunity that they never had considered before or to be the person to support their ideas when others have said ‘that’s crazy.’” When alumni from her class or previous mentees reach out to share how she impacted their journey, Capps is reminded of the importance of her work. In fact, two of the class alumni now work on the Innovation and Entrepreneurship team.

“Being a part of the behind-the-scenes stories of so many ventures is a level of special that just cannot be put into words.”

It is also rewarding for her to see a venture or former student highlighted in the news. Capps often remembers the early days when they were first exploring their concept. “Being a part of the behind-the-scenes stories of so many ventures is a level of special that just cannot be put into words,” she said.

Capps has also been an integral part of the Silicon Valley spring break trip that Innovation and Entrepreneurship has hosted for over 20 years. She said, “The trip has always been fun, but the last few years have been a reminder of the work that we do as educators. Now, we are able to introduce current students to NC State alumni who both attended the Silicon Valley trip when they were students and are now entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley, hosting current students. Those full-circle moments are truly inspirational.”

Her expertise as an administrator has also made a lasting impact on the program. Capps has developed strong relationships over the years that allowed the entrepreneurship program to grow to the level it is today — where thousands of students from every college are touched by entrepreneurship every year.

One administrative task that stood out to Capps from her career was serving on the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) Reaccreditation committee for the last two reaffirmations. During the 2014 reaccreditation process, she was a part of the team to work on the TH!NK Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP). She remembers thorough discussions around the idea that this QEP represented the “Think and Do” attitude that is embodied at NC State. Soon after, “Think and Do” became the motto of the university. Capps smiles every time she sees the mantra because she was a small part of the work that led to such a powerful tagline.

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Career of a lifetime

In addition to paving the way for innovation and entrepreneurship to grow at NC State, Capps played an important role as a mentor and educator across campus and the world.

While she never expected it to happen in the early days, Capps also got to share the NC State entrepreneurship education models internationally. She has traveled to places such as Japan, Russia, Hong Kong, Argentina, Monaco, Denmark and more. Capps has even been a guest of the US Ambassador to Denmark for an economic development dinner at his home in Copenhagen.

Back home at NC State, the list of her partnership highlights is not small, which proves Capps’ influence at the university. Below are some of her partnerships:

• Mentor at the Shelton Leadership Challenge
• Dancer in the Data Science and AI Academy production of “Data Science in Motion”
• Mentor and application reviewer for the Goodnight Scholars and Park Scholars
• Content specialist for the Wicked Problems Wolfpack Solutions
• Working and partnering with
  • University Athletics
  • Blue Economy Innovation Program
  • Food, Bioprocessing and Nutrition Sciences (FBNS)
  • Exploratory Studies
  • Undergraduate Research
  • Arts NC State
  • University Honors Program
  • Kenan Institute
  • University Advising
  • And many others to support their entrepreneurial interests

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A bright future ahead

Following retirement, Capps will take the lead as CEO of one of the premier entrepreneurship associations in the country, the United States Association of Small Business and Entrepreneurship (USASBE). In this role, she will lead USASBE in advancing entrepreneurship education through bold teaching, scholarship and practice.

There is no doubt Capps will continue to think and do the extraordinary in this new role. The Wolfpack community wishes her the best as she steps into this exciting opportunity and continues to develop entrepreneurship education at a higher, national level.

A celebration for Jennifer Capps’ retirement will be held sometime in the fall of 2025. You can subscribe to our newsletter for more information. You can stay connected with her through LinkedIn.

This post was originally published in Entrepreneurship News.