undergraduate - QREC 九州大学ロバート･ファン /アントレプレナーシップ･センター

When I was a freshman, I decided that I wanted to become an entrepreneur in the future, so I took a lecture on Introduction to Entrepreneurship, and from there I fell in love with QREC.
The first is the Global Seminar, where I learned from Mr. Yamakawa of Babson College that it is “okay to fail,” a concept that changed my stereotype of what it means to fail. The phrase “Action trumps everything” is one of my life philosophies. This mindset has enabled me to continue to take on challenges without fear of failure.
The second is QSHOP’s Entrepreneurial Experience Program, You can experience everything from company incorporation to shareholders’ meeting with no risk.
The third program is the Applied Entrepreneurship Marketing. The course is not just theory, but is very practical and is conducted through specific case studies based on actual business operations, making the three weeks go by very quickly. We form teams and give a presentation on the last day of the lecture. Our team consisted of three working adults and four students. We named our team “7-CROSS” and I was the team leader. I was able to achieve very good results thanks to the relationships that allowed us to talk without hiding words, the members who gave us great ideas, and the seniors who showed us the way and taught us from their backs.

At the end of my junior year, a friend suddenly said to me, “I want to start a business,” which led me to participate in the Challenge & Creation (C&C) and Acceleration Program. I had never been involved in QREC in my life as a student before, but I remember that I was excited to participate in the program because I had just finished job hunting and had only a few credits left, so I thought, “I’m not busy, so I’ll do it.
In the Acceleration Program, I learned about the practical aspects of thinking, such as how to identify problems and develop solutions, and the techniques of making pitches. I feel that I was able to experience many things that I would not have been able to experience in my normal student life.
These experiences were similar to the skills that are required when one enters the workforce, which was a bit of a surprise to me, as I had thought that QREC was an organization for people who start their own businesses.
Although it will be tougher for me to participate in QREC activities because I will be working, I am truly grateful to the faculty and mentors who supported me through QREC activities and to my friends and team members who brought me along halfway through the program.

I was assisted by QREC in breaking through barriers in the initial phase of my project.
I first became aware of QREC through a senior entrepreneur who provided me with information as I was conducting various research in preparation for starting my own business. At the end of my sophomore year, I took a year off from school to work for a venture company that supported improvement activities in the manufacturing industry, working on a wide range of tasks from sensor development to data application. When I returned to school the following year, I wanted to do something that would make use of my experience since I was able to spend time as a student with a year of working experience in the industry. It was during this time that I learned about QREC and my idea was selected for the Challenge & Creation (C&C) program, which was followed by the Acceleration Program.
In addition to funding, QREC’s various programs provide support in the form of mentors who are knowledgeable in the field of the project. For me personally, this was very important, as I was able to understand the real needs and challenges of the actual clientele, which gave me a great basis for my project’s direction. I still go to my mentor’s office two days a week to verify that the system we developed meets their expectations. While it is very important to find clients who are willing to cooperate with us in the early stages of a project, it is also a matter of luck whether or not we can actually find such people, given that we have no track record of success. In this sense, we believe that the support we can receive in the name of QREC, especially in the early stages of the project, will be more valuable than monetary support.

Entrepreneurship does not equal entrepreneurship.”
This was the first thing that was communicated to me in the QREC lectures and the biggest thing I learned in the lectures.
I believe that entrepreneurship is about taking ownership of your life. I think that the QREC lectures are always structured around that entrepreneurship. Therefore, every time I attend a lecture, I am confronted with myself.
Among the many lectures, I especially recommend the “Introduction to Entrepreneurship” course. This lecture provides an opportunity to objectively analyze how one’s inner self has been formed and to think about various things from different perspectives. I am convinced that the ideas learned or acquired in these lectures will be useful for a long time to come.
QREC offers not only lectures, but also a system that financially and cooperatively supports students’ challenges and aspirations. Thanks to this opportunity, I have been able to pursue my own interests.
I hope you will take full advantage of QREC and learn a lot from it!

My involvement with QREC began when I had a chance to meet Dr. Kaneko in one of our support projects.
As a transfer student from a technical college, QREC was a valuable place for me to meet students from different backgrounds and broaden my perspective.
I am working on a “game for the fun of making games” and attended the Entrepreneurship Bootcamp to discuss the business aspects of this concept. At first, I was averse to thinking about the business aspects of games. However, as I discussed the future of the product with my peers, I realized that the business aspect also has a lot in common with the fun aspect.
At Entrepreneurship Bootcamp, I also experienced my first pitch in the U.S., which made me feel closer to the world. The world of entrepreneurship and business, which once felt like a “foreign country,” now feels as close as “within the same town,” which is a big change.
QREC was a slippery runway for me. It was very slippery and I sometimes fell on my butt, but I did not crash. I would recommend it as I think it will help you learn a sense of balance.

I started taking courses at QREC because I wanted to learn the basics of entrepreneurship and organizational management and broaden my perspective for the future. Among them, I especially recommend Prof. Yamakawa “Global Seminar (English). It is only a two-day lecture, but you can learn a wide range of topics in depth, from the fundamentals of “what entrepreneurship is” to how to deal with failure and how to build a mindset. Each time I took the class, I felt as if I had been reborn as a different person, and I was able to grow mentally and emotionally. Mr. Yamakawa is energetic and motivates his students. I have attended the course two years in a row, and I hope to attend it again next year. QREC also offers a wide variety of other courses, such as accounting, finance, organizational theory, and marketing. You can choose the course that best suits your interests and goals, and you are sure to find the right one!　(The photo above was taken with Prof. Yamakawa)

As the spring semester ended and the summer semester began, I had some free time after quarter courses ended and I searched for courses that piqued my interest and found some interesting intensive courses. Since the registration period had already ended by this time, I needed to find an intensive course if I wanted to earn credits. I learned that it is important to anticipate the thinking of other companies and how to read in detail the various numbers in various market research reports in cooperation with team members in order to better match the company’s products to customer demand. I felt like I was getting a glimpse of the corporate efforts of companies around the world at twice the speed. Technology Marketing Game are recommended subjects, but so is Entrepreneurship Career Design. Each lecture in the Entrepreneurship Career Design course is taught by invited lecturers from different fields, and the students are encouraged to look at society and their own future from different perspectives. We highly recommend that undergraduate students who have free time to attend this lecture should do so.

The classes in my major department were mostly classroom lectures in specialized fields, so I decided to take the practical QREC classes. All of the classes are friendly to first-time students and are a very good first step in starting something you are interested in. Also, in the Idea Battle, the idea we had when it was accepted did not work out, and after mentoring, we changed our idea several times. In the end, we only created part of the product and did not complete it, but we were able to learn how to think in a social problem-based manner without being limited by what we had learned at QREC or in our major classes.

I first became interested in business and entrepreneurship when I took a course at QREC, “The Technology Marketing Game,” which I took lightly and found more interesting than I had expected. I was then selected for the Challenge & Creation (C&C) and Acceleration Programs, which gave me the opportunity to experience many hands-on opportunities.
The most impressive of all was the learning I gained through design thinking. I was able to learn the process of uncovering issues that users themselves were unaware of and finding solutions in a practical way through repeated failures. The ability to verbalize issues, which I developed through this process, has been a great help not only in my business and research, but also in my daily life and relationships.
I recommend the QREC Acceleration Program. In this program, you will learn through lectures and workshops the general flow of the process up to proof of concept. You will also receive valuable feedback on your ideas from a diverse group of people, including entrepreneurs and investors.

I participated in a program that views the school festival as an opportunity to start a business. My motivation was to try to create something that people would enjoy through knitting, which is my specialty. I branded the knitting I had been doing as a hobby under the name “Kinari no Mori” and tried my hand at selling goods made from yarn and craft bands.

Through this experience, I learned especially the managerial viewpoint of “how to create value-added products while keeping costs down. From the selection of materials to packaging, we balanced cost and quality while devising a pricing structure that would make the product accessible to customers. In order to ensure profit generation while minimizing risk as much as possible, we repeated simulations from the fundraising stage and carefully planned the flow of the product up to the day of sale. It was not easy to generate a profit while maintaining the quality of the products, but we were able to experience the real difficulties and fun of management.
The “venture finance” lectures I had taken the previous year were also very useful. By learning about the flow of money, the structure of account settlements, and the concept of profit calculation in advance, I was able to smoothly apply the knowledge to actual sales planning and pricing. I highly recommend taking the QSHOP and Venture Finance lectures together!

In the spring of my sophomore year, when I began to feel that a life of club activities, part-time jobs, and classes was not enough, I remembered the Introduction to Entrepreneurship course I took in my first year and began to actively participate in the program’s idea battles. Looking back, I am glad that unlike classes, part-time jobs, and internships, QREC activities allowed me to start with what I wanted to do, including the time I spent facing the question, “What do I want to do with my time as a university student? It was a good opportunity for me to think about getting out of the university and getting involved in activities outside the university.

The reason I applied to Idea Battle was that while preparing “Q-DELIVERY,” an online grocery service for students living near the Ito Campus, I wanted to receive objective advice on the business from university professors and adults with practical experience.
In student entrepreneurship, it’s not uncommon for projects with brilliant insights to remain stuck at the “idea stage” without being realized. However, through the Idea Battle I recommend, you can overcome these barriers with strong mentor support, significantly advancing your concept from mere conception to implementation.
My experience at QREC made me keenly aware that while accumulating knowledge through lectures is important, it’s equally vital for students to roll up their sleeves, take action, and boldly introduce their ideas to society without fearing risk. The feedback and experience gained from having people actually use your service far surpasses any theoretical knowledge gained from textbooks.
When implementing ideas and creating services that solve societal issues, the “connections with people” made here become a powerful asset. I encourage you all to take that first step toward bringing your ideas to life.

Students' Voices - undergraduate

Realizing that one encounter can radically change your life

I was able to experience something that will be useful to me as I look for a job.

I was assisted in breaking through barriers at the beginning of the project.

I am confident that what I learn here will serve me well for a long time to come

This is a valuable place to meet students from different backgrounds and broaden your horizons

I felt as if I had been reborn as a different person, and I grew a lot mentally.

It gave me an opportunity to look at society and my future from different perspectives and think about it.

Very good as a first step in starting something you are interested in.

The practical skills I have gained here have been of great help not only in my business and research, but also in my daily life and relationships.

Combining knowledge with practice, learning leads to action.

QREC activities can start with what you like.

Here, “connections with people” become a powerful asset.

Students' Voices - undergraduate

Realizing that one encounter can radically change your life

Realizing that one encounter can radically change your life

Course History

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I was able to experience something that will be useful to me as I look for a job.

I was able to experience something that will be useful to me as I look for a job.

Course History

Comment

I was assisted in breaking through barriers at the beginning of the project.

I was assisted in breaking through barriers at the beginning of the project.

Course History

Comment

I am confident that what I learn here will serve me well for a long time to come

I am confident that what I learn here will serve me well for a long time to come

Course History

Comment

This is a valuable place to meet students from different backgrounds and broaden your horizons

This is a valuable place to meet students from different backgrounds and broaden your horizons

Course History

Comment

I felt as if I had been reborn as a different person, and I grew a lot mentally.

I felt as if I had been reborn as a different person, and I grew a lot mentally.

Course History

Comment

It gave me an opportunity to look at society and my future from different perspectives and think about it.

It gave me an opportunity to look at society and my future from different perspectives and think about it.

Course History

Comment

Very good as a first step in starting something you are interested in.

Very good as a first step in starting something you are interested in.

Course History

Comment

The practical skills I have gained here have been of great help not only in my business and research, but also in my daily life and relationships.

The practical skills I have gained here have been of great help not only in my business and research, but also in my daily life and relationships.

Course History

Comment

Combining knowledge with practice, learning leads to action.

Combining knowledge with practice, learning leads to action.

Course History

Comment

QREC activities can start with what you like.

QREC activities can start with what you like.

Course History

Comment

Here, “connections with people” become a powerful asset.

Here, “connections with people” become a powerful asset.

Course History

Comment