Sacred Heart, Grupo Guayacán launch I-Corps course
The university is the first in Puerto Rico to offer a credited class using the I-Corps startup model.
Sacred Heart University and Grupo Guayacán Inc. have partnered to educate university students about innovation and entrepreneurship through the first university-level I-Corps course in Puerto Rico.
The I-Corps PR program is an intensive training initiative designed for early-stage entrepreneurs seeking to validate their business ideas. The collaboration between Sacred Heart and Guayacán began last year, with the university hosting the program’s 18th cohort and graduating 16 teams. That experience laid the foundation for adapting the curriculum into a for-credit course.
In January, Sacred Heart launched ADM 213: Customer Insight and Validation, integrating the I-Corps PR methodology into its academic curriculum. The class, which includes 17 students, is co-led by Patricia Ramírez-Gelpí — an intellectual property attorney, I-Corps PR program manager and instructor since 2018 — and Roberto Guzmán-Bayron, who holds a Ph.D. in business administration and also serves as a long-time I-Corps instructor and mentor.
“Having the opportunity to bring the I-Corps PR curriculum into the classroom is a dream come true after 10 years of hard work impacting the earliest stages of the entrepreneurial journey,” said Grupo Guayacán Executive Director Laura Cantero. “This collaboration with Sacred Heart allows us to provide world-class content and tools to undergraduate students, planting the seeds of entrepreneurship.”
Sacred Heart President Gilberto J. Marxuach-Torrós emphasized the university’s commitment to experiential learning. He said Sacred Heart is the first university in Puerto Rico to require all undergraduate students to complete an entrepreneurship project, regardless of major.
“Wherever our students go, they will need to engage in the development and execution of projects on various scales. Our responsibility is to prepare them for these professional scenarios,” Marxuach-Torrós said. “That’s why all undergraduates … take a sequence of six entrepreneurship courses that guide them from ideation and validation to development and execution.”
According to the university, more than 4,000 student entrepreneurship projects are currently in development.
Marxuach-Torrós said the collaboration with Guayacán — which has nearly three decades of experience supporting entrepreneurship on the island — provides students with access to seasoned mentors, practical methodologies and lessons drawn from real-world startup development.
“We share Guayacán’s hope that all these projects will contribute to the development of a sustainable and inclusive Puerto Rican economy,” he said.
