Campus Entrepreneurship

Early in ‘08 we blogged about Belmont University being named the ‘model’ undergrad entrepreneurship program in the US. Donna Fenn has written about Belmont over at Inc.com. From her piece,

The school has three “hatcheries” or incubators, where 65 students operate businesses with access to mentors and business center services. Belmont has also invested several hundred thousand dollars in six on-campus student-run businesses, five of which are in the black. There’s a dorm store, a public relations firm, an audio production company, a graphic design shop, and a clothing store that serve not only the university but the greater Nashville community

What does your school offer for entrepreneurs? Does your school push you to be an entrepreneur, either on campus or after graduation? Its not uncommon for school leaders to be unsure how to make this change in mindset. As Fenn continues,

All of this, of course, is wildly different from the way entrepreneurship was taught even as recently 5-10 years ago. Far fewer undergrads studied entrepreneurship and those who did were typically bogged down in theory and core requirements until junior year. Now, says Jeff Cornwall, who runs the program at Belmont, “it’s a whole new world.” Fully 40% of undergrads come to Belmont with businesses already started – an astounding number. “