An NIU professor was awarded $7,500 for his work in the Illinois Institute for Entrepreneurship Education.

E. Edward Harris, business education and administration services professor, received the Leavy Award for excellence in Private Enterprise Education. The award was presented March 11 at a ceremony in Washington, D.C., publicist Cathy Gale said.

The award money, granted by the Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge, Pa., will go to the institute.

The institute prepares educators to become partners in the economic development process by training them to serve as leaders and consultants in entrepreneurship education, Gale said.

The institute was created over a seven-year period, Harris said. The final step was accomplished when the state legislature passed legislation to create the 13-member board, he said.

“The institute hopes to foster the idea that young people should consider the option that they could work for themselves,” Harris said.

Harris stressed the importance of the institute’s work and said entrepreneurs account for more than 10 million new jobs in the last decade. This number surpassed the jobs created by big business, he said.

While the institute hopes to become a national organization in the future, Harris said it has four primary goals. These include integrating entrepreneurship into the education curriculum throughout the levels of education, making sure students understand the option of becoming an entrepreneur, teaching the idea of becoming an owner and preserving the entrepreneurial spirit.

Harris said there has been a decline in the entrepreneurial spirit as students get older and progress through their education.

Harris is the only recipient from NIU and one of 18 award recipients from 12 states, Gayle said.

The Freedoms Foundation established the Leavy Awards in 1977 with a grant from the Thomas and Dorothy Leavy Foundation, Gayle said. The California-based foundation gives monetary awards and promotes free enterprise in class, she said.

The awards honor programs which give students a better understanding of private enterprises’ role in improving the standard of living, Gayle said.

About $129,000 was awarded this year while more than $1 million has been awarded since the institute’s inception in 1977, Gayle said.