ASU’s entrepreneurship initiative will unveil a new program Tuesday to give aspiring enterprisers opportunities to start their own businesses and use creativity to change the world.

The program, ASU Innovation Challenge, will act as an umbrella for both new and existing projects put on by the initiative Entrepreneurship at ASU.

“There was a lot of confusion and chaos of what ASU had to offer in the field of entrepreneurship,” said Sara Christenson, student coordinator of entrepreneurship.

Christenson said the new program will paint a clearer picture of how the University helps student entrepreneurs.

ASU Innovation Challenge will include four components: Challenges Innovator, Edson Student Entrepreneur Initiative, Community Change Maker and the Innovation Explorer, said Scott Perkofski, program manager of the Edson Student Entrepreneur Initiative.

University Innovation fellow Maggie McGannon said the first component, Challenges Innovator, will relate to ASU’s Challenges Project, an initiative that calls students to confront global issues like education, sustainability, human rights and others.

Students will then present ideas to solve problems in these areas.

McGannon said the students with the best concepts, those that “maximize social impact,” will be given up to $5,000 to turn their concepts into reality.

The second component of ASU Innovation Challenge, the Edson Student Entrepreneur Initiative, is a program that has been at ASU since 2005.

Students wanting to start their own businesses and nonprofits might consider the Edson Initiative, Perkofski said.

This program provides teams of students with funding to help develop their own businesses or nonprofit ventures with grants between $5,000 and $20,000. Teams chosen will be given office space to develop their ideas and receive coaching from successful entrepreneurs and professionals, he said.

Tyler Metcalf, co-president of the Entrepreneurs at ASU Student Organization, said he is planning to submit a business idea in hopes of receiving a grant.

“I want to change the way online education is as far as how it is presented,” Metcalf said, explaining his project idea.

Metcalf, whose father is also an entrepreneur, said he wants to start a business that gives people the opportunity to learn outside a university.

His online business would allow people to learn without the institutional attachment, he said.

The third component of the ASU Innovation Challenge, Community Change Maker, will give students the opportunity to pair up with an existing nonprofit and work on a unique project the student has created, Perkofski said.

The final component, Innovation Explorer, will be a compilation of workshops, speaker series and events held throughout the school year, he said.

Entrepreneurship at ASU and the programs it offers are not limited to students wanting to create their own businesses and nonprofits, Perkofski said.

“Entrepreneurial and innovative thinking are skills desired within large companies,” he said. “These skills will elevate you within a company and give you the competitive advantage in the hiring process.”

More information about ASU Innovation Challenge will be provided at Club Carnival, ASU’s student organization fair, on Jan. 26 on the Tempe campus. Rules and procedures about some of the new programs have not yet been finalized, but Entrepreneurship at ASU officials said the program will be ready in time for the Club Carnival.

Officials also said a new Web site is being launched next week by Entrepreneurship at ASU where students will be able to find more information about ASU Innovation Challenge.

Reach the reporter at kjdaly@asu.edu