The Vassar Innovation and Entrepreneurship Program has always been about proximity: to ideas, to each other, to the messy middle of building something before it’s finished. This fall, that proximity is realized into a physical space, for the first time in this program’s history. We’re opening a Program Lounge, and we’re doing it as part of a bigger shift: We are becoming part of the Center for Innovation.

On the Program Lounge

Ventures aren’t made in meetings; they’re made in the hour after, when someone says “wait, what if” over a coffee and the idea actually starts to take shape. The Program Lounge is built for that serendipity.

Located in the future home of the Center for Innovation, right alongside the Innovation Lab’s newly expanded footprint, the Lounge will give our program’s community a dedicated place to work, gather, and collide with each other’s projects. It opens this fall; and while its larger renovation plans are still taking shape, this is very much a starting point. It’ll only get better from here.

The Lounge, accessible through the main entrance of the Innovation Lab, will include:

• A co-working and collaboration space. Flexible seating for solo focus work, team check-ins, or the kind of impromptu whiteboard session that changes a pitch overnight
• An opportunities wall. A live, physical feed of funding calls, competitions, workshops, and connections worth knowing about, updated as they come in.
• A lending library. Books on venture-building, design, and entrepreneurship that you can actually take with you, not just browse.
• A snacks and refreshments bar, because the best conversations happen over something warm in your hands.

On Joining the Center for Innovation

The Lounge isn’t arriving in isolation; it’s part of a broader change in how we fit into Vassar’s innovation ecosystem. Going forward, the Vassar Innovation and Entrepreneurship Program is becoming part of the Center for Innovation, joining the Vassar Innovation Lab under one shared roof and one shared mission.

This isn’t more than just a rebrand. This is a recognition of something that’s already true: we and the Lab have been operating side by side for years. Our work has always overlapped, in that we bring the programming, the funding, the workshops, and the network; and the Lab brings the space and tools to build. Bringing them together under the Center for Innovation means students no longer have to think of “innovation at Vassar” as two separate doors. It’s one door, one community, and, soon, one shared space to walk into.

What This Means for You

If you’re a student who’s ever wandered into a VIE workshop out of curiosity, or spent late nights in the Innovation Lab getting a prototype to work, this is your space getting bigger and more connected. If you’re all-in on a venture already, this is your new home base. This can be a place to work between classes, where you can find your next collaborator, or grab a coffee with someone who’s building something just as ambitious as you are.

The Lounge is available starting this Fall 2026 semester, and what you’ll find on day one is just the beginning. Renovations are ongoing, and it’ll only get better from here. In the meantime, there’s plenty of ways to get engaged early, whether that’s checking out what’s in the lending library, adding to the opportunities wall, or just showing up. The space is coming, the community is growing, and VIE’s next chapter starts here.

Questions about the Program Lounge or the transition to the Center for Innovation? Reach out to Program Director Julián Aguilar at jaguilar@vassar.edu.