Red Hat has been in Raleigh since 2002, moving from Durham to partner up with NC State University.  Since then, it has been a source for industrial connections and real-world study opportunities with a major playing in the open-source computing realm.  Red Hat has since announced that it is moving off campus to the new Progress Energy Center, but that hasn’t stopped them from encouraging other young engineers and scientists from pursuing their own corporate dreams.

A WRAL article recently covered one of Red Hat’s latest side projects, an “Entrepreneurs Garage”.  The garage is a place where students can roll up their sleeves, pick up a soldering iron, and fabricate up whatever their minds can think up.  One student, Sharon Bui, started a business that sells sorority clothing and uses the space to give her an edge in the market…

“Instead of meeting at Panera, I have a professional space to bring in investors and clients,” Bui said

Opportunities like this are one-and-a-million for students and even if their ideas never take flight, they give them valuable skills and a unique experience to set themselves apart from the crowd when they go to apply for their jobs.

If you’re still a student and looking for a leg-up on the competition, cook up an idea and check into the Entrepreneur Garage.  For more information, visit NC State’s Entrepreneurship Initiative website.