A vibrant, successful, entrepreneurial community is essential to regional growth. Three issues of Innovation Matters are exploring key aspects that allow entrepreneurs to flourish within the Philadelphia Region: an entrepreneurial community, funding opportunities and entrepreneurial education.
The Philadelphia Region is home to more than 85 colleges and universities which awarded 55,700 degrees during the 2005 -2006 academic year. As entrepreneurism is on the rise, colleges and universities throughout the Philadelphia Region offer entrepreneurial programs which provide students with hands-on learning and the opportunity to work with entrepreneurs on real-time projects.
Temple University houses an Innovation and Entrepreneurship Institute through the university’s Fox School of Business. Currently, Temple offers an entrepreneurship major and minor. At the undergraduate level, certificate programs in non-business disciplines have been successfully piloted at the College of Engineering, College of Science and Technology and College of Health Professions. “This year, we created an MBA concentration in Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Design which we anticipate offering in the fall,” says Monica Zimmerman Treichel, Academic Director of Entrepreneurship Programs at Temple University.
“We are here to inspire, support, encourage, foster and mentor entrepreneurship throughout the University,” said Chris Pavlides, Executive Director of Temple’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship Institute. Temple students are empowered to start their own businesses through classes such as entrepreneurial marketing, cost accounting, global strategic management, business society and ethics, to name a few.
Students in the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania can also take part in entrepreneurial classes. Classes are offered within the “management” discipline, with students being able to learn about important topics such as technical innovation and entrepreneurship, legal issues for growth companies, societal wealth venturing, strategies and practices of family-controlled companies, entrepreneurial marketing and new product development, and many more.
Drexel University recently launched an entrepreneurial online resource for students, which is unique to the Philadelphia Region. According to Drexel’s website, New Venture Projects Online! pairs entrepreneurs who submit specific problems with their technology-related business ventures with MBA students who have the enthusiasm, drive and skill set to create effective solutions. With this program, students take the initiative and self-select projects based on what interests them and can then work with the entrepreneur to find a solution under the guidance of a mentor.
Donna Marie De Carolis, Ph.D., Head of the Department of Management and Academic Director of the Baiada Center, says the new online portal “enables the development of entrepreneurial skills in our students by immersing them in experiential challenges and assists young and growing companies through the infusion of talented students and ideas."
The University of the Arts is creating entrepreneurship courses for its students to pair with their creative coursework. As part of its curriculum development, the College of Media & Communication, within The University of the Arts, is extending its capacity to offer students an education that prepares them to be designers, media makers, performers and artists, as well as designer/media/artist entrepreneurs and business leaders.
“Our University will invite creative entrepreneurs who will make new enterprises here. Our students will learn from these experiences—but also through an expanded curriculum in entrepreneurship—what it means to make and sustain an enterprise or a career,” said Sean Buffington, President of The University of the Arts, at his inaugural address in April 2008.
This university-wide minor in entrepreneurship will be directed to undergraduates in media, communication and the arts and could possibly become a new university-wide graduate program in media/communication/art and business.
Preparing students for graduation
Real-life experience beyond the classroom is invaluable to students and entrepreneurship programs in the region are allowing students to work on real-time projects and be mentored by entrepreneurs.
Temple University’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship Institute hosts “Be Your Own Boss Bowl,” a competition for students, faculty, staff and alumni from across Temple University to develop business innovations. Over the course of an academic year, participants develop businesses, products, services or technologies, and learn from the process. At each stage, there are opportunities for technical assistance, critique, networking, mentoring, learning and cash prizes.
The Baida Center for Entrepreneurship at Drexel University also holds entrepreneurial competitions to create business concepts, business plans and business incubators to win cash prizes. Mentors are available on a weekly basis to consult and aid students and students can participate in numerous entrepreneurial events sponsored by the Center.
“Entrepreneurship education prepares students not only to start a business but also to think creatively and to innovate,” Treichel says. Creativity and innovation are necessary in all established businesses, for the economy is making innovation a necessity for businesses, their management and their employees. These entrepreneurial competitions allow students to learn the real-world skills that are needed as an entrepreneur, and learn throughout the process, thus preparing them for life after graduation.
National recognition
This past fall, Temple University was ranked among top entrepreneurship programs for undergraduates in the United States by three separate ranking entities: Fortune Small Business magazine, Entrepreneur magazine with the Princeton Review and U.S. News & World Report. Since Entrepreneur magazine started its ranking surveys five years ago, Temple University has been included each year, and is the only school in the region to do so.
“It’s rewarding to see our entrepreneurship programs recognized nationally in the company of prestigious schools,” M. Moshe Porat, Dean of the Fox School, says. “Entrepreneurial thinking is a cornerstone of Temple, and our programs continue to expand and strengthen each year in both in the academic and the applied sectors. Our mission is for students to think and act like entrepreneurs no matter where their career paths take them.”
With the growing opportunity for entrepreneurial education available in the Philadelphia Region, students graduating with entrepreneurial-based degrees can create successful businesses when paired with the entrepreneurial community and funding opportunities.
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