When Carl Schramm was in his 20’s, people didn’t go to school to become entrepreneurs. Anyone with an idea could start a business, hoping for success even without a support network to fall back on.
“These days, people set out to be entrepreneurs,” said Schramm, former president and CEO of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. It is a non-profit foundation based in Kansas City, Mo., that is dedicated to studying and supporting entrepreneurship. He is now a professor in Syracuse University’s honors program, an unofficial mentor in entrepreneurship for students — and part of a growing trend of emphasizing entrepreneurship on college campuses.
Some educators say they have noticed an increased interest among students and administrators in education programs geared toward entrepreneurship. In addition to responding to the education interests of students, the programs bring attention to universities and can revive local economies. Entrepreneurship programs also can be a source of foundation and federal funding for universities.
Entrepreneurship education, either as coursework or programs outside the classroom, are offered at three Syracuse-area schools: SU, Le Moyne College and Onondaga Community College. Programs are funded through donations, grants from groups like the Kauffman Foundation and government programs like the U.S. Small Business Administration. Many programs also support veterans looking for training in entrepreneurship and small business management.
About four in 10 students want to start their own businesses, according to a poll released in January by Gallup, a research-based company headquartered in Washington, D.C. The poll studied the interests of fifth- through 12-graders. It suggested educational support or experience in or small-business program, like those at area colleges, may be key for student success in entrepreneurship.
A college or university does not necessarily need to create an entrepreneurship major to support student start-up businesses, said local entrepreneurship educator John Liddy. Liddy is director of the Student Sandbox at The Tech Garden. The Tech Garden is a technology incubator for small businesses in Central New York and the Student Sandbox is a special program there for college students. Liddy is also the entrepreneur in residence at Le Moyne College, where he advises to students on starting businesses.
“What we’re finding is that universities and colleges should try to draw toward their own strengths,” Liddy said. For example, Liddy said, a student who wants to develop a new product for medicine should look for a college with a strong biology program and pursue ideas while building a background in that specific field.
Le Moyne College does not have an entrepreneurship program but offers support and resources for students who are interested in developing their own business. The college is in the process of applying for federal funding, Liddy said.
“Nationally, entrepreneurship has a lot of popularity and people have wrapped their arms around it locally,” Liddy said. As larger businesses downsize, start-up businesses can step in and create jobs, Liddy said.
Onondaga Community College has its own Small Business Development Center, which is open to students and the public. The program is an offshoot of the U.S. Small Business Administration, which delivers millions of dollars-worth of loans, loan guarantees, contracts, counseling sessions and other forms of help to small businesses across the U.S.
OCC’s Small Business Development Center offers guidance to potential small business owners, said Joan Powers, assistant director for the Center. “We make sure they do their homework first by developing a business plan and talking to other business owners,” Powers said.
Powers has worked for the Center since 1985. In the last three to four years, she said, she has seen more interest in small-business startups. Typically, people’s interest in entrepreneurship goes up during poor economic times because they are without a job or preparing to lose a job, Powers said.
Part of OCC’s mission as a community college is to help the community. The Center supports this mission through creating jobs and encouraging local economic development, Powers said. For example, a percentage of government construction contracts also have to be filled by a minority- or veteran-owned business. And the Small Business Development Center can help those minority – or veteran-owned businesses get a share of those federal contracts, Powers said.
At SU, students are the main focus of the university’s entrepreneurship programs. SU is one of the few universities that offer a major in entrepreneurship. The university also supports student entrepreneurs through programs like the Falcone Center for Entrepreneurship and the Raymond von Dran Innovative and Disruptive Entrepreneurship Accelerator initiative. The Falcone Center, housed in the Whitman School of Management, offers information and counseling resources to students. The von Dran initiative, located in the School of Information Studies, organizes a student competition to win funding to start their businesses
In the Whitman School, all undergraduate business students are required to take a capstone course in entrepreneurship where they experiment with creating their own business with a team of other students. The course’s purpose is to bring together what students learned in their four years as undergraduates and encourage innovation.
Peter Scott is a professor of entrepreneurial practice in the Whitman School and teaches the capstone class. The course, he said, helps spark an interest in innovation.
At the start of Scott’s class, students are asked to rate how interested they are in entrepreneurship on a scale of one to 10. Only a handful of students may express a strong interest or say they have a business idea they would like to pursue, he said. But that may change by the end of the course.
“Students say they weren’t interested in the beginning, but at the end they are,” Scott said. “And that’s just really great.”
And more interest in new business helps everyone, said Schramm, the former Kauffman Foundation president. Business startups offer new employment opportunities and benefit other local businesses, Schramm said.
“If you sell office furniture, you want to see more business created,” Schramm. “If you sell business insurance, you want to see more business created. If you sell paper products you want to see more business created.”
(Dara McBride is a senior with dual majors in business management and newspaper journalism.)
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