Dr. Steven Gedeon awarded the Chancellor’s Award of Distinction
Congratulations to Ted Rogers School of Management’s Dr. Steven Gedeon for receiving the 2021 Chancellor's Award of Distinction at Ryerson University.
This award is presented to an educator recognized within the Ryerson community as an exemplary model of life-long career commitment to teaching and learning demonstrated by their significant contributions to advancing teaching and learning at the university, sustained educational leadership and an outstanding and sustained record of teaching excellence.
As an Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship & Strategy at the Ted Rogers School, Dr. Gedeon is a highly-regarded entrepreneurship educator and expert who has helped to make Ryerson University synonymous with entrepreneurship.
“Through his role helping to build one of the world’s premier entrepreneurship programs here at Ryerson, Dr. Gedeon has transformed the lives of thousands of students, of people in need and of entrepreneurship professors around the world. We are immensely proud of this well-deserved achievement.” says Dr. Daphne Taras, Dean of the Ted Rogers School.
Fostering entrepreneurship across Ryerson
Dr. Gedeon first became involved with student entrepreneurship at Ryerson University in 2006 as a faculty advisor for Enactus Ryerson (external link) , a student-led non-profit organization that empowers students to use entrepreneurship for social change. And it was Enactus that brought entrepreneurship to the attention of the university President.
The President and Provost later approached Dr. Gedeon to create a program to motivate students and alumni to discover innovations and act on them to start new ventures. The result was the Ryerson Entrepreneur Institute (REI) (external link) , which he founded in 2008.
“In the early days, I wanted to support my students who were starting businesses and my Enactus team who wanted to make a difference helping people in need,” explains Dr. Gedeon.
“They needed spaces on campus, funding and support, so I helped create things like the DMZ, Fashion Zone, Ryerson Entrepreneur Institute, StartMeUp and Ryerson Angel Network.”
“As we gained traction across campus, I started hiring students in other faculties as entrepreneurial ambassadors and got more involved in changemaking projects, city building, social entrepreneurship issues and Ashoka programs,” he adds. Ryerson is the first Canadian Ashoka Changemaker Campus for social innovation.
Dr. Gedeon has grown the REI to become a global leader in co-curricular student learning. He has inspired, funded and supervised dozens of student projects around the world, including food security in Nunavut, water purification in Egypt and India and sustainability in Peru. His Enactus student teams have won over 50 regional and national entrepreneurship championships as well.
In addition, Dr. Gedeon co-founded Start Smart, Startup School and Food Innovation Hub at Ryerson, and has made significant ongoing contributions to the Science Discovery Zone and Legal Innovation Zone at the school.
Teaching students and teachers
As Chair of the Entrepreneurship Curriculum Committee for many years, Dr. Gedeon has also helped transform the entrepreneurship degree program, implement accreditation and create new courses to support social innovation, experiential learning and zone education across campus.
“I think every university needs to differentiate itself and find its niche in an increasingly competitive marketplace,” Dr. Gedeon explains. “With the largest entrepreneurship program in the world, 10 on-campus incubators, 75 different entrepreneurship courses and among the largest entrepreneurship faculties, Ryerson can distinguish itself on the world stage in the field of entrepreneurship.”
Dr. Gedeon believes that entrepreneurship is fundamentally an experiential learning process, and that this learning should be student-centric. Teachers can provide parts of the puzzle, but the student must assemble the pieces together to see the total picture and transform information into usable knowledge. He adds that this learning must be situated within real world contexts so the student experiences the whole instead of just memorizing the parts.
“Now that a culture of entrepreneurship has been firmly established with institutional-level support at Ryerson, I've become more involved in Teach-The-Teacher programs and educational research to make an impact globally,” he says.
He co-founded ConnectU – “Educating Entrepreneurship Educators,” including a Teach-The-Teacher Program delivered to over 300 professors and semester-abroad programs, and EntreTime – Teach-The-Teacher program for EU-funded network of university professors and entrepreneurial universities.
Recognition
Dr. Gedeon says that he is honoured to be the recipient of this year’s Chancellor’s Award of Distinction. “I originally came to Ryerson because of its focus on high-quality teaching,” he explains. “Awards like this are tangible proof that Ryerson cares about teaching, and honours and recognizes this important contribution. My active research program also helps me to become a better teacher, and a better teacher of teachers.”
This award is just one of the many teaching honours Dr. Gedeon has received throughout his career. He also received the President’s Award of Teaching Excellence and Experiential Teaching Award from Ryerson University, as well as the USASBE National Award for Entrepreneurial Experiential Education Best Practices.
The Chancellor's Award of Distinction will be presented to Dr. Gedeon at the 2021 Ryerson Awards Night.