Young guns: a new generation of college students makes entrepreneurship its business

Entrepreneur, Oct, 1996 by Lynn Beresford

Part of the allure is USC's faculty. Like most instructors in entrepreneurship programs, those at USC have run and sold their own businesses, so they know whereof they speak. O'Malia describes USC's seven entrepreneurs-turned-professors as having the "battle scars and tom pants" to prove their mettle.

Luckily, the kind of students drawn to entrepreneurial programs makes teaching them that much easier, according to Allan Bailey, executive director of San Diego State University's (SDSU) Entrepreneurial Management Center. There are always arguments about whether entrepreneurs are born or made, and although there's a lot to be said [on both sides], a curriculum like this helps [young entrepreneurs] develop tools and skills to complement their own personal attributes and drives," Bailey says. "If we can help them avoid some mistakes, that will improve the potential success rates of those who gravitate into the entrepreneurial venue."

SDSU's program is heavy on the MBA side and light on the under graduate side (two classes-introduction to Entrepreneurship and Introduction to Writing a Business Plan). But as with other schools, programs, interaction with community businesses is a large part of SDSU's regimen.

THE WAVE OF

THE FUTURE?

Although Jennifer Kushell didn't graduate from a formalized under graduate entrepreneurship program at Boston University, she's a sterling example of the kind of raw ambition that's present in every young entrepreneur. Even though she was influenced by the five small-business go-getters In her immediate family, Kushell's grit has come largely from within. Does she think of herself as a role model? Actually, she's pretty modest. "Any young entrepreneur who pursues their own company while in college and sticks to their guns is a role model," she says.

Entrepreneurship programs have undoubtedly changed the way students approach their careers - and the students themselves have changed the way university faculties structure their academic programs. To illustrate the change in the perception of entrepreneurship as a legitimate academic pursuit, Bygrave recalls that 11 years ago, when he joined Babsons faculty, students typically, asked whether it might look bad on their resumes if they took a class in entrepreneurship and then tried to get a position at a big company. "I never get asked that question today," he says.

Bailey agrees that the "E-word" plays a much bigger role in business schools, vocabularies these days. In fact, he believes entrepreneurship is the major that best represents the growing interdisciplinary, nature of business. Says Bailey, "In a lot of ways, entrepreneurship is the inter-disciplinary, business major of the 21st century."