Origin Story

Johns Hopkins’ student entrepreneurship hub first launched in 2018 as a program with Johns Hopkins Technology Ventures, the university’s commercialization and entrepreneurship hub. A 10,000 square feet co-working hub was opened adjacent to the Homewood campus to ground this activity.

Over five years, FastForward U evolved from a support system grounded in pizza and mentorship into a robust program and campus ecosystem. Leveraging partners on and off campus, FastForward U supported hundreds of unique student-led startups each year.

Instrumental in this evolution was an undergraduate student, Pava Marie LaPere, who started several organizations on campus dedicated to entrepreneurship and then lent her advice to university leadership about the need for more institutional commitment to student innovation.

In the Fall of 2023, Pava’s life was taken at the age of 26, cutting short an incredible trajectory of influence and leadership in the Johns Hopkins and Baltimore startup ecosystem. To honor her legacy and maintain the momentum that she helped set in motion, the Pava Center was launched in April 2024.

Social Innovation Lab

The Pava Center is also home to The Social Innovation Lab, which began as a student organization at Johns Hopkins University. Students, staff and faculty came together from the Bloomberg School of Public Health, the Whiting School of Engineering and the Carey Business School to support one another in building socially impactful ventures.

Over the years, access to this program has expanded to welcome non-JHU affiliates. The result is a diverse ‘laboratory’ for innovation where students, community members, mentors, partners and friends come together to use entrepreneurship as a tool for enriching the city that Pava Marie LaPere loved so much.