About the Intellectual Entrepreneurship Program

Housed within the DDCE and the Moody College of Communication, the IE Program connects undergrads with graduate students and internship opportunities. The program gives graduate students a unique teaching experience by allowing them to work one-on-one with undergraduates. Through mentorship, they’re gaining real-world knowledge that will better prepare them for careers in the classroom and beyond.

The Intellectual Entrepreneurship (IE) Program has received a $25,000 endowment from Carol and Jim Hailey to support outstanding IE graduate student mentors. This generous gift will fund awards to graduate students who are exemplary mentors in the IE Pre-Graduate School Internship program. Honorees will be selected by the IE Program and identified as JoyLynn Hailey Reed Graduate Student Achievement Awardees.

About the JoyLynn Hailey Reed Endowment

The JoyLynn Hailey Reed Endowment was established by the Board of Regents of The University of Texas System on September 1, 2015, to benefit the Intellectual Entrepreneurship Consortium within the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement. Gift funds were provided by Mrs. Carol M. Hailey, Mr. James L. Hailey II, and Mr. James L. Hailey. The endowment honors the late JoyLynn H. Reed, Ph.D.

Dr. JoyLynn Hailey Reed helped shape the IE Program when it began in the Graduate School Professional Development Program in the 1990s. She was co-coordinator and lecturer for that program. She received her bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees from The University of Texas at Austin. She later became a professor of psychology at UT Southwestern Medical School.

“We are proud to honor our daughter by contributing to a program that she cared so deeply about,” said Jim and Carol Hailey. “Back in the early stages of development, she was very passionate about the potential of IE and how it could help students make the most out of their college experience and find a career that best fits their needs and interests. In education, we couldn’t think of a more important service.”

Rick Cherwitz, founder and director of the IE Program, says the endowment will help IE continue to attract graduate student mentors and build on student success. “The IE program JoyLynn helped build at UT remains as a legacy to her talents and energy.” Cherwitz says. “Thousands of graduate students forever will be in her debt.”