Frank Balcavage ’01: Today’s Students Have “Unlimited Opportunity" to Bring Their Ideas to Market
The Farrington Award for Outstanding Commitment to Entrepreneurship, named for Lehigh's 12th president and given annually to recognize sustained, all-in dedication to the university's entrepreneurship community, has a short but distinguished list of past recipients, including Dexter Baker, John Thalheimer, Joan Thalheimer, Jamie Flinchbaugh, Joshua Cohen, and Pat Costa. This year, Frank Balcavage, class of 2001, joined them.
Presented by Chris Kauzmann ’13 M’14, Office of Entrepreneurship Innovator in Residence and Venture Studio Proof-of-Concept Lead, the award recognized someone who, by Kauzmann's own description, has been on campus weekly for over a year "not looking to self-promote, give talks on how to be successful, or boast about his latest investment, but in service to making Lehigh a place where students are inspired and new ventures are grown."
Frank Balcavage ’01 is presented with the 2026 Farrington Award.
Balcavage’s accomplishments are quite real: coding since age 8, he graduated with an Electrical Engineering degree in 2001, founded and scaled Mathway globally before selling to Chegg in 2020, and continues to build and invest in new companies. But Kauzmann was clear that the award wasn't about the résumé. "What Frank has freely given to Lehigh is something hard to come by — the expertise in real venture creation paired with the instinct to help us and our students do something hard, learn what is really needed, and champion those efforts."
In his acceptance remarks, Balcavage spoke candidly about the moment Lehigh — and entrepreneurship broadly — finds itself in. "The business climate and the world are undergoing a massive shift right now that will likely accelerate in the coming years through AI," he said, noting that he had recently attended Lehigh's admitted students day for one of his daughters, who will enroll in the fall. "That alignment is part of what makes this moment feel so promising."
He was direct about what AI changes for aspiring founders: "It makes it possible to dramatically lower the initial capital and specialized knowledge required by a small team — which then shortens the time to market and gives students nearly unlimited opportunity to start bringing their ideas to market compared to years ago."
He closed with characteristic humility. "I'm very proud to have had the opportunity to contribute to [the new Lehigh University Venture Studio] and entrepreneurship in general. And thank you to everyone for all the great initiatives helping to promote entrepreneurship here at Lehigh."
Meet all the Innovate! Celebrate! Winners
Innovate! Celebrate! 2026: From 'What If?' to What's Real
The annual Innovate! Celebrate! event was less a ceremony than a demonstration. On the evening of April 28, Lehigh University's Office of Entrepreneurship filled the room with confetti, applause, and something harder to manufacture: proof. Proof that curiosity, when given the right ecosystem, becomes something real.
