2002 | June, 2001 | February, 2001
 
 
California State University, Fresno

In advance of the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, the College of Innovation, the Institute for Developing Entrepreneurial Action (IDEA) and the University Business Center at the Craig School of Business, together with the College of Engineering and Computer Sciences and the California Agricultural Technology Initiative (CATI) , are submitting this proposal. We are proposing an interdisciplinary entrepreneurial option targeting 20 graduate students over a two-year period from the School of Engineering and Computer Sciences and the California Agriculture Technology Institute (the School of Agriculture). This project launches entrepreneurial training and a two-phased venture laboratory to these students.

By its nature, entrepreneurship is interdisciplinary. The purpose of this project is to create a hands-on, entrepreneurship-training program that will ultimately become available to all graduate students at California State University, Fresno. The program goals are to 1) Extend broad-based knowledge and understandings of entrepreneurship to encourage more students at CSUF engage in an entrepreneurial future; 2) Advance entrepreneurship by improving the level of cooperation among the various colleges and centers on the CSUF campus; 3) Extend the partnership between CSUF’s entrepreneurship programs in the local business community. The outcomes of such an effort will result in the delivery of:

1. Interdisciplinary entrepreneurship coursework to a minimum of 20 graduate students over a two-year period;
2. Interdisciplinary entrepreneurship courses through the College of Innovation and the colleges of engineering and agriculture;
3. Recruitment of a minimum of five Fresno State faculty members in engineering and agriculture to assist in expansion of entrepreneurship and coursework delivery.
4. Creation of a minimum of six new partnerships with area businesses to participate in the venture labs and participate in internships;
5. Online access to graduate students to business development and e business coursework; and
6. Additional of a minimum of $50,000 in funding for this project through other funding applications to state and federal sources.

Case Western Reserve University

This proposal requests $50,000 from the Coleman Foundation for partial support for the planning and initial implementation of four new Master’s Programs in Science Entrepreneurship at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU). The Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics and Statistics departments will each launch such a Master’s Program. The purpose of these programs is to provide training and real-world experience to students with backgrounds in these scientific disciplines and a vision for new and growing ventures. The goal: scientists who are empowered as entrepreneurs, and who have the skills to start a new high-tech businesses and grow them successfully.

The general structure of each program will be similar, consisting of:

• A core of technical courses, including the creation of a number of new courses created specifically for these programs.
• A core of courses taught by the Weatherhead School of Management, ncluding New Venture Creation and Technology Entrepreneurship.
• An entrepreneurially oriented project with technical content. This will take the form of a Master’s thesis that will typically arise from an entrepreneurially oriented internship in a sponsor company, or from a student-designed research project that will be the basis for launching a new business venture.
• An active seminar series that will provide continual exposure to entrepreneurs, scientists, venture capitalists and experts in fields such as intellectual property.

In all areas, these new programs will benefit from the experience and network of contacts that CWRU has developed in launching a Master’s Program in Physics Entrepreneurship. Though this program, launched with partial support from the Coleman Foundation, is itself only in its second year, there are significant early indicators of success, including a student-launched company that has already received more than $250,000 in seed financing, another company being launched by a student in collaboration with a faculty member, with the remaining students in successful (and lucrative) internships. The program has also received significant national and international publicity that will aid in efficiently launching the new Master’s Programs in Science Entrepreneurship.

Drexel University

This project proposes an undergraduate program in "entrepreneurship in technology," to be the academic complement of the Laurence A. Baiada for Entrepreneurship in Technology at Drexel University. The entrepreneurship program is an interdisciplinary University-wide initiative, modeled after the successful Honors Program, available to interested undergraduate students from all colleges. The entrepreneurship program at the Baiada Center will extend the mission if the University from preparing students to work for industrial age companies to preparing them for entrepreneurial careers both to creating their own businesses and to operating within existing companies in bold and imaginative ways. The proposed program leverages Drexel’s historic strengths in technology and business, the co-op nature of the proposed undergraduate program, and its relationship with the Port of Technology, by offering a rigorous entrepreneurship learning experience that includes business knowledge, technology awareness, specific entrepreneurship training and soft skills, and practical experience through internships.

Using the Coleman funds we expect to accelerate the start of the program, develop courses, and begin faculty development. Within the initial project period, between one hundred and two hundred undergraduate students are expected to access the resources of the Baiada Center and participate in at least one facet of the entrepreneurship program.

Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering

Olin College of Engineering if and entirely new educational institution committed to accelerating innovation in engineering education. Through this grant, Olin College proposes to develop entrepreneurial "backbone" – implemented as a sequence of nine project-bases courses that integrates Olin’s engineering curriculum. The backbone will be composed of multi-disciplinary projects sequenced to integrate and reinforce the fundamentals taught in Olin’s technical courses. We will use technology entrepreneurship as a unifying principle of the backbone. Students grouped into cohorts based on common technical interests and teams of faculty employ to backbone to coordinate their courses and present connections among diverse disciplines. The goal is to give students a true working knowledge of engineering, business, teamwork, and communication so that they can bring a technical vision to marketplace. Student accomplishment will be assessed through rigorous "gate events" at the end of every student’s first two years of study. Practicing entrepreneurs will assist in development and implementation of "gate events". The expected outcome of this project is a sustainable curricular model consistently producing superior entrepreneurial engineers.

Loyola University Chicago

The goal of the project "Entrepreneurship and e-Commerce" is to provide high school girls with experiences that will increase their awareness of the many opportunities afforded by business ownership and self-employment by learning how to develop a business using e-Commerce technologies. Four specific programs will be implemented: on-campus experiences during the school year for students, high school counselors and parents, a two week intensive summer experience focused on developing a Web-based business, a mentoring program using local women entrepreneurs, and the development and maintenance of Web resources on business entrepreneurship and technology.

In the summer program, participants will be introduced to fundamental principles of business, engaged in a process of creative business idea generation, followed by the implementation of their business plans. The experience will serve to expose girls to the many entrepreneurial opportunities that are available to them through carefully designed interactive experiences on the Web and interaction with women role models and mentors. Using a project-based approach, girls will examine a case study of a women-owned company utilizing e-Commerce, apply that knowledge to create their own prototype companies, and then launch commerce-ready Web sites. Through the specific skills transferred and relationships with successful women entrepreneurs, this project supports the Coleman Foundation’s mission of advancing cutting edge, forward thinking, entrepreneurship education to meet the needs of high school students.

Millikin University

Millikin University requests $50,000 for a new interdisciplinary program entitled "The Art of Entrepreneurship." This program will bring the disciplines of entrepreneurship, art, and music business together via a two-component curricular enhancement: 1) a new three-credit experiential course exploring innovation and creativity; and 2) three new one-credit laboratories in which the students will plan and launch a retail business consisting of a storefront and an online operation. This new business, tentatively titled E-Finity, will Market Millikin student-created art, music, and student-designed affinity products to a local market of area residents and a world-wide market of Millikin alumni.

This program will impact up to twenty-six art, music business, and entrepreneurship students per year. Our overriding goal is to better prepare fine arts and entrepreneurship students to become successful entrepreneurs. We will also reach up to 16,000 Millikin alumni who will have the new opportunity to purchase original Millikin student-created art, music, and affinity products.

Morningside College

The project concept is to develop a Center for Entrepreneur Education ad Family Enterprises at Morningside College that will house and direct an innovative entrepreneur education program to serve its student body. Morningside is a small private liberal arts college with strong professional programs. The student body consists primarily of first generation college students from rural Iowa, Nebraska, and Minnesota. The purpose of the center is to assist a student by fostering self-sufficiency through self-employment. This grant will provide support to fund the programming of the first phase of the Center targeting the non-business major with a pilot specifically targeting the fine arts students, but is open to the campus and community. An Entrepreneurship Certificate will be the flagship for the Center. The certificate is a unique program for the undergraduate student that combined traditional classroom experiences with significant experiential learning. In its first year, the Center will focus on experiential learning, non-curricular programming, and outreach programs. It will take three years to fully develop and implement the Entrepreneurship Certificate.

The goal of the Center is to provide three major innovative experiences: collegiate programming, outreach programs, and a campus business incubator. Collegiate programming will include hosting and annual Entrepreneur Week that will include seminars and workshops, establishing an Entrepreneur Club for professional development, develop partnerships for students to obtain mentors and internships, and developing coursework for the entrepreneur. Outreach programming will include mentoring to Junior Achievement students, hosting a high school business planning competition, and establishing a Center web site. A campus business incubator will host up to two alumni in the first year.

Expected outcomes will include college students having developed the ability to identify self-employment interest areas based on mentoring and internship experiences. Student participants will have participated in the E-club and E-week activities, including speakers and workshops. College students will have further developed personally through presentation of the Junior Achievement curriculum in the local school systems. Finally, a campus incubator will be operational for students.

The Center for Entrepreneur Education and Family Enterprises will be the first in the region at a private liberal arts college. The Center is a unique program for the undergraduate student inter the direction of the regionally recognized business department as Morningside College serving Northwestern Iowa, Northeast Nebraska, and Southeast South Dakota. Most entrepreneurship education centers appear on large university campuses. A program developed on the Morningside College campus can inspire innovation for entrepreneur education that chould be duplicated on other small private colleges. New partnerships will be formed between current students aspiring to become independent small business owners, business and fine arts faculty, and four area agencies: Junior Achievement, the Small business Development Center at Western Iowa Tech, the Chamber of Commerce, and the Siouxland Home Based Business Association.

North Georgia College & State University

This proposal seeks funding for an Entrepreneurship Awareness and Education Grant at North Georgia College & State University (NGCSU) in the amount of $10,000. The purpose of the funding is to assist the university in starting a new program devoted to entrepreneurial awareness and education for art students and practicing artists in the Appalachian region. The Coleman Entrepreneurship Awareness and Education Grant will be used as capital that will assist in operating the program in its first year.

The program is in the planning stages at this point in time. The program will be supported by funding from a grant, tuition, in-kind contributions by NGCSU, and cash contributions by NGCSU.

This program is part of the university’s efforts to assist both small business and entrepreneurial businesses. The university currently operates a small business program directed. During its first three years of operation, The Small Business Center has assisted over 40 businesses in five counties.

This program is unique because it proposes to assist individuals that generally do not seek entrepreneurial training. The common problem for many of these individuals is balancing their artistic talents with their need to develop the skills needed to start a new entrepreneurial venture, such as an art gallery, or to display their work in an outdoor show circuit, art studio, or retail establishment.

Rowan University

The proposed program will assist the College of Business at Rowan University in developing and implementing and entrepreneurial infusion into non-business disciplines. The program that is envisioned will utilize a "boot camp" model of intensive multi-day interactive workshops. A pilot program will train Rowan faculty and a second program will include faculty form area colleges and universities. The focus will be on translating entrepreneurial concepts and ideas into participant specific situations. Each participant will be expected to develop an action-based plan to take the information back to their institution and integrate some aspect of entrepreneurship training into their programs.

The following goals support the development of and entrepreneurial curriculum:

• Increased awareness of entrepreneurship for the participants in the program.
• Development of specific teaching units/modules for the discipline-specific areas.
• Development of opportunity analysis/business plans.
• Development of new courses at Rowan University and participating universities.

The expected outcome of the program is a commitment to an interdisciplinary approach to entrepreneurial education. Specifically:

• Sharing information and resources to enhance the development of entrepreneurial education throughout the University’s academic disciplines.
• Establishing a University-wide entrepreneurial focus.
• Promoting training opportunities for all faculty to they can best determine the ways that entrepreneurship can be applied to their disciplines.

The University of Chicago - Graduate School of Business

In addition to leading curriculum in the classroom, the Entrepreneurship Program at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business has developed several unique experimental learning programs to provide our students with an opportunity to test the ideas they learn in the classroom. Currently we offer two laboratory-based classes that place teams of students into new ventures and private equity investment forms to execute key projects that impact the client companies’ strategic direction. In several cases, the students have developed business plans that allowed the client to raise venture funding and completed analysis used in a new product launch. We also offer an internship program that has already begun contributing business case development to other entrepreneurship classes. These opportunities are very popular and are open to GSB MBA students as well as students from other business and professional programs. In addition, they are very effective in helping to connect an extended entrepreneurial community throughout the Chicago-land area with the resources of the GSB.

It is for the purpose of expanding both the breadth and reach of this unique set of experiential learning opportunities that we seek funding from the Coleman Foundation and The US Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship.

The University of Texas at El Paso

In 1992, the College of Business Administration of the University of Texas at El Paso began creating programs to meet the entrepreneurship education, research and service needs of the great El Paso community. The Centers for Entrepreneurial Development, Advancement, Research and Support (CEDARS) was established as the College of Business Administration’s outreach arm. Subsequently, CEDARS became the organizational home for the Small Business Institute Program, The Family and Closely Held Business Forum, The Franchise Center, The Small Business Executive Education Program, The Center for Women in Business, and The Institute for Community-Based Teaching & Learning, among others.

Through CEDARS, we propose to embark on a new initiative, one that focuses on a secondary education in entrepreneurial business ownership. It will begin with three school districts in El Paso, Texas. The new program, Secondary Education in Entrepreneurial Development (SEED), will provide a broad-based entrepreneurial business education, including venture creation, minority enterprise (our community is 70% Hispanic), family business and franchise education.

Our program will be working with the three largest school districts in El Paso. In our pilot program, Americas High School in The Socorro Independent School District, has conducted courses in franchising for the past two years. Instructor George Rodela, a graduate of UTEP’s Franchise Management Certificate Program, has worked closely with TFC to achieve a franchise curriculum for his classes, which have approximately 80 students. SEED is currently developing a business ownership, family business and franchise curriculum course for Riverside High School in the Ysleta Independent School District, directed by Diego Morales, also a graduate of the UTEP Franchise Management Certificate Program. We will also be working with one or more schools from the El Paso Independent School District (EPISD). These programs will provide yearly instruction to approximately 100 students per district (300 students in total).

In 2002, CEDARS will develop high school mentors with the UTEP’s Collegiate Entrepreneurs’ Organization Chapter to assist students in preparing to enter and succeed in institutions of higher education and to consider career options as owner of their own businesses.

External collaborators include the CART program in Fresno, California, Junior Achievement of El Paso, Congressman Silvestre Reyes’ Office in Washington, D.C. and the International Franchise Association.

Additional goals for SEED include obtaining approval for the courses to count toward academic credit at UTEP and at the El Paso Community College, and to serve as a model for entrepreneurship education in secondary schools first elsewhere in Texas then throughout the United States.

Once SEED is launched with the assistance of The Coleman Foundation, the program will sustain itself through tuition fees for the seminar training courses, of endowments, sponsorships, franchise memberships, funding from benefactors and the International Franchise Association’s Educational Foundation/Franchising Entrepreneurship Training Program (high school component).

Entrepreneur Magazine, Success Magazine, Inc. Magazine, Franchise Times, Franchise Update, international publications, and universities and individuals throughout the United States have reported on the impact CEDARS is making on our regional and national economies.

We request the support of the Coleman Foundation in the form of a grant of $50,000 to cover the initiating expenditures for Secondary Education in Entrepreneurial Development (SEED). This funding will include forums and seminars of the CEDARS’ programs, three national entrepreneurial conferences, executive director’s salary, executive assistant salary, consultant stipends, partial scholarships, promotional materials, video tapings of sessions of educational courses and instructional material.

University of Pittsburgh

Project:
Entrepreneurial Fellows Center

Concept
In Western Pennsylvania's emerging business sectors, most high-growth firms are started by scientists, engineers, and R&D professionals. Once these companies move beyond the preventure/micro-enterprise phase, their CEOs often become overwhelmed by the challenges of success because they lack the business skills, experience and knowledge that will help them grow their firms and sustain long-term business performance. They need a comprehensive education and mentoring program that uses a mix of techniques to provide a solid base of business skills and knowledge relevant to the dynamic economy of today, and mechanisms to help them forge connections with other entrepreneurs as will as the wider regional business community. Designed as a rigorous certificate program, the Entrepreneurial Fellows Center's mission is to provide innovative, practical, action-oriented and interactive management education that will assist our region's dynamic leaders in growing their businesses to the highest potential while tightening the entrepreneurial network in Western Pennsylvania.

Objectives

• Develop and sustain an innovative educational program that meets the specialized needs of the entrepreneur who is leading a fast growing company that has moved out of the micro-enterprise stage and is dealing with critical management decisions in order to get to the next level.
• Foster an environment of interactive learning through peer advisory groups that expand economy driving networking relationships and strengthen entrepreneurship in our region.
• Provide each Fellow with one-on-one mentoring by seasoned, successful entrepreneurs who have built and sustained their own ventures in the Western Pennsylvania area and are committed to improving the business climate for rapid-growth companies.
• Link participants to an interactive online network of alumni, mentors, Fellows and faculty which serves as an electronic hub for broad based communication, connection and support, a 24/7 advisory board.
• Provide supervised opportunities for Fellows to apply the theory, skills and concepts they learn to their existing business challenges which allows for immediate feedback and cross-fertilization of ideas.

Outcomes
This project will result in a proven dynamic curriculum, mentoring process and a "virtual" network of advisors that can be used as a model to start similar activities at other locales. In addition this will result in the formalizing and institutionalization of the Entrepreneurial Fellows Center (currently a pilot program) as a core program of the Institute for Entrepreneurial Excellence.

Awarded June, 2001

Clarkson University
Project Director: Dr. Timothy Sugrue and Marc Compeau

Clarkson University seeks a Coleman Foundation grant to develop Living, Teaching, Talking Business, a unique three-pronged approach to lifelong entrepreneurial education. With seed funding through the program, faculty in Clarkson University’s Shipley Center for Leadership and Entrepreneurship will create a student living/learning entrepreneurial program, a hands-on teaching component pairing students and community entrepreneurial partners, and an alumni continuing entrepreneurial education program. The Living and Teaching components will ensure that our graduates have hands-on entrepreneurial experience and are poised to begin their own enterprises after graduation. The Talking Business component will ensure that we provide the continuing education and information necessary for those entrepreneurs to remain viable and successful in their chosen fields, as well as serve as mentors for student entrepreneurs. Our proposed three-pronged approach begins entrepreneurial education with sophomore undergraduates by creating Clarkson’s first living/learning environment. Under the guise of Living Business, approximately 26-28 student entrepreneurs will live together on campus and create an actual start-up company. Participants in the Venture @ Moore House will gain hands-on real-world experience by actually "becoming" entrepreneurs for an academic year. The second prong of our approach to entrepreneurial education, Teaching Business, also provides hands-on, real-world experience for our students, but in an entirely different manner. Teaching Business will incorporate four student consulting groups, each with a different strategic focus, into the local business community to form partnerships that will work toward the resolution of entrepreneurial business problems. Part of the Teaching Business program will also target on-campus entrepreneurial initiatives between business and engineering students.

Under the proposed three-tiered approach, entrepreneurial education will continue with Let’s Talk Business, a three-day executive level education program targeting entrepreneurs with previous academic training in engineering and science disciplines. The onsite education component will be sustained by a website dedicated to addressing participant needs. The goal of Let’s Talk Business is to create a strategic alliance among the cadre of participants, faculty, and keynote speakers from publicly recognized organizations that embody the entrepreneurial spirit. In addition to keynote addresses, faculty will facilitate roundtable discussions, entrepreneurial issue case studies and videotaped leadership lab experiences. It is the goal of the Shipley Center to have these three program components work together to help Clarkson University produce top-notch entrepreneurs who will, in turn, become entrepreneurial educators themselves, helping to complete the circle of entrepreneurial education.

Greenville Technical College
Project Director: Carol Henderson

This project will expand the Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies (IES) at Greenville Technical College (GTC) by providing the supplemental funds necessary for enhancement of the program’s strategic marketing plan. The IES currently provides the most innovative program of practical entrepreneurial education in the area. The IES program integrates traditional classroom training with practical application exercises, mentoring, and networking to encourage, support, and facilitate development of new business and emerging leadership in Greenville County. Grant funds will allow the IES to enhance the program’s marketing plan; improve existing program services and experiences for both participants and business volunteers; and provide a wider range of professional development activities for IES professional staff. This project has three primary goals: 1) Enhancement of the IES profile in the local community and Upstate through strategic marketing; 2) Enhancement of existing IES program services; and 3) Enhancement of IES program staff through professional development opportunities.

The strategic marketing plan will target four audiences: currently participating business volunteers, program graduates, enrolled students and potential students. The project will enhance the IES signature marketing and fundraising event, a black-tie banquet. A nationally known speaker will raise the event’s profile in the community, increase media attention, and provide a highlight experience for participants. The project will target program graduates through development of a de facto "alumna" program, the Associates Membership of the Entrepreneurs Forum. This program will retain graduates interest and involvement in the IES and its programs, and become a recruiting tool for new business volunteers. The associates membership will help sustain a relationship with emerging leaders in the entrepreneurial community. Currently enrolled students will be targeted with development of a student recognition program. This activity will help encourage students’ enthusiasm and support high achievement. The project also seeks to improve existing program services. The IES mentoring program is a key element in attracting and retaining students. However, many adult students have never participated in a formal mentoring program. Development and distribution of a mentoring guide will insure that this program is infused with new and innovative ideas in entrepreneurial education.

Iowa State University
Project Directors: Drs. Nolan Hartwig and Donald Draper

Iowa State University will develop a course in entrepreneurship for veterinarians and veterinary students that will be offered nationwide via the Internet. The course meets an expressed need of veterinarians. It will emphasize entrepreneurship and will include topics such as strategic planning, leadership management, financial modeling and strategy, marketing, and managing human resources. By the second year of the project, we intend to enroll 100 veterinarians and 50 veterinary students per year. Upon completion of the course, veterinarians will be more entrepreneurial in their practices, be more willing to invest capital and human resources in economic opportunities, and serve as role models for colleagues, clients, and others with whom they interact.

MiraCosta College
Project Director: Carole Enmark

More artists, crafters, writers, performing artists and other self-employed individuals in the cultural arts industries ply the technical portion of their businesses with skill and ease. What they most lack are business operational skills. The concept of this project is to offer a relatively "painless" eight-week entrepreneurial series specifically designed with the visual artist, performing artist, writer, composer and other artists in mind. The basic goals would be to introduce simple record keeping and financial management skills using both manual as well as computer systems; a strong emphasis on intellectual property protection including copyrights and service/trademarks; innovative ways to market their services (performing artists), and products (visual artists and writers); and developing at the very least, a broad mission and business plan. The purpose of the plan would be to demonstrate how to increase time for creativity, not to waste time on traditional time management and planning. Expected outcomes would be a group of artists who will be able to perform basic business development skills as well as their creative skills thus enabling them to do what they love to do and at the same time gain economic self-sufficiency through self-employment.

Northeastern University
Project Directors: John Friar, Marc Meyer, Francis Di Bella

Northeastern University has embarked upon a plan to establish a new School of Technological Entrepreneurship (SOTE), with an opening date of September 2002, which will provide a "minor" in entrepreneurial studies to students from the various colleges of the University. The SOTE will build upon a rich history of Northeastern University alumni successes in a variety of business start-ups. Drawing faculty from several very active programs in the Colleges of Business Administration, Engineering and Computer Science, the proposed SOTE will create an

Interdisciplinary curriculum, which culminates in a required senior year activity: the Entrepreneurial Capstone Design Course in which students from all three colleges (and potentially other colleges at the University) will work together as teams on specific projects. The goal of the project would be to develop a successful business plan and prototype that could attract venture capital. Northeastern alumni entrepreneurs will provide input to faculty from each of the three colleges who will coordinate the development of introductory seminars and courses in entrepreneurial subjects during the 2001-2002 academic year. These introductory lectures will culminate in the first Entrepreneurial Capstone Design course in Spring 2002 with an expected 4 teams of 3-6 students drawn from each of the colleges. At the conclusion of the course, we will hold the first Entrepreneurial Capstone Project competition and confer awards for the best projects. The Capstone course is the pilot for the actual SOTE which will commence in Fall 2002. Our proposal requests funds to help develop the introductory seminars and the Capstone Design Course and Competition.

Temple University
Project Directors: Drs. Monica Zimmerman and Betsy Leebron

The project entitled "Entrepreneurship in the Arts, Entertainment and Leisure" is a collaborative cross-disciplinary approach to entrepreneurship education highlighting arts, entertaining, and leisure. It is a new minor designed to provide a supportive environment for students seeking to create and launch a business during or upon completion of their degree. Collaboration across disciplines within Temple University to stimulate entrepreneurship currently is conducted in an unstructured and informal manner. The Fox School of Business and Management currently offers an entrepreneurship major and minor, as well as graduate courses in entrepreneurship. The School of Communications and Theater offers courses in entrepreneurship including an online course entitled "Creating a New Media Business." The School of Tourism and Hospitality Management also offers a course in entrepreneurship as it relates to leisure. In addition, in the Fall 2000, the Fox School launched the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Institute (IEI) to provide students with extra curricular opportunities to foster entrepreneurship and innovation. The goal of the program is to facilitate entrepreneurship in the arts, entertainment, leisure and other disciplines by offering an integrated curriculum supplemented by extra-curricular activities. The outcomes include the completion of a minor in entrepreneurship by students from schools throughout the university; the creation and startup of business ideas by the students engaged in the minor; the involvement of practicing entrepreneurs in the education of Temple University students; and development of neighborhoods surrounding Temple University’s main campus located in North Philadelphia.

University of Cincinnati
Project Director: Dr. Charles H. Matthews

The College of Business Administration (CBA) of the University of Cincinnati approved an integral concentration in Entrepreneurship and Family Business Management beginning with the 1997-98 academic year and established the U.C. Center for Entrepreneurship Education and Research (CEER) that same year. Building on an established solid foundation of small, entrepreneurial, and family business education, the CBA and College of Engineering (CoE) seek to further develop and refine courses and program initiatives across university units (e.g., CBA, CoE, Law, Medicine, and Design, Art, Architecture, and Medicine). Specifically, we week to establish, strengthen, and sustain formal links (E-Alliance) between the CBA and CoE designed to facilitate student based new venture creation by linking ideas (engineering venture course) and action (undergraduate and MBA new venture business plan courses). Furthermore, we propose establishing the "Bearcat Bridge Fund" to provide seed capital to student ventures to facilitate launch after graduation. A description of the proposed courses, programs, and integration into the overall curriculum is provided.

University of Hawaii
Project Director: Shirley Daniel

The University of Hawaii (UH) requests funds to implement a cross-curriculum entrepreneurship program for students in science and technology fields. The proposed program is a joint initiative of the UH Center for Entrepreneurship and E-Business (CEEB) in the College of Business Administration, the Hawaii Center for Advanced Communication (HCAC) in the College of Engineering, and the Marine Bioproducts Engineering Center (MarBEC). These three Centers will work together to develop the Hawaii Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Program (HI-STEP). The goals of the HI-STEP program are to involve students and faculty from across campus in entrepreneurial studies and activities, promote and foster entrepreneurship as a career option, and provide opportunities for students to meet and work with practicing entrepreneurs in the community. The program will include:

• A 3 credit hour entrepreneurship course for science and engineering students to be offered in Spring 2002;
• A web-based course which will be available to students throughout the 10-campus UH campus system, starting in Fall 2002;
• Outreach seminars for Hawaii’s high-tech communities;
• Development of case studies of Hawaii’s high-tech entrepreneurs;
• Creation of a cross-disciplinary faculty interest group to promote the development of entrepreneurial curriculum and activities throughout the UH System.

The UH has a very diverse student population and ranks third in the US in the number of graduate degrees awarded to minorities. By reaching across disciplines throughout the UH system, the HI-STEP program has the potential to provide a significant number of minority students with entrepreneurial education opportunities.

The University of Iowa
Project Directors: David Hensley and Dawn Bowlus

The John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center (JPEC) at The University of Iowa is requesting support to expand its efforts to provide innovative entrepreneurship curriculum and training programs for state of Iowa high school teachers and students. The education grant will be used to develop customized entrepreneurship curriculum – classroom and web-based materials, in the areas of agriculture, software and information technology, and engineering (new product development). In addition, continuing education program will be developed to support high school teachers, delivered through workshops, distance learning and web-based technology. Furthermore, the JPEC will sponsor an annual Iowa Business Plan Competition for Youth Entrepreneurs as well as establish a mentor program joining local entrepreneurs to area students starting small businesses. The project goals are to increase the innovative and creative skills of Iowa high school students, foster the development of entrepreneurial businesses and increase the overall level of entrepreneurial spirit and activity in Iowa high schools and students. Over the next two years, the JPEC seeks to train a minimum of 150 high school teachers and enroll over 2000 high school students in the program.

The University of Notre Dame
Project Director: James H. Davis

The University of Notre Dame’s Gigot Center for Entrepreneurial Studies is partnering with the City of South Bend, Indiana, the South Bend Northeast Neighborhood Association and local church leaders to revitalize a neighborhood contiguous to the University of Notre Dame campus in South Bend, Indiana. Key to this revitalization is new business creation within the neighborhood. The University has purchased a former Aldi grocery store, which has remained unoccupied for over one year, for the express purpose of creating this Northeast Neighborhood Community Center. The building has undergone a thorough renovation. The center includes a computer lab with 21 PCs networked to an onsite server, Internet access, training facilities and a health clinic. One of the many facets of the center is a business incubator, which will be administered by the Gigot Center. Training, facilities and office space are at the disposal of entrepreneur clients of the incubator.

The express goal of this incubator is to assist fledgling local entrepreneurs to get their feet on the ground in the environment of a neighborhood incubator. As they are ready to leave the nest, the incubator will assist them in finding local storefront locations for the next step of development. Student members of the undergraduate and MBA entrepreneur clubs will be an integral component in the interface between neighborhood entrepreneurs and the Gigot Center for Entrepreneurial Studies. Additionally, the Gigot Center will help administer a micro-lending program for these same local entrepreneurs to assist them with seed money for their start up ventures. The potential for growth is good in South Bend with an additional 8 to 10 incubator sites in various neighborhoods under different stages of development at this time. If the template is successful at the Northeast Neighborhood Community Center site, it is our plan to develop more incubator sites in the region.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison
Project Director: Ted Baker

The LEAP (Launching Entrepreneurial Advisory Panels) Program is an integrated system of applied educational, support, and network building designed to encourage women who own small, established businesses in Southcentral Wisconsin to use formal advisory panels to enhance the growth, profitability, and overall success of their businesses. This is a collaborative effort between the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Business’ Weinert Center for Entrepreneurship, Women in Business Council, and Small Business Development Center, along with the involvement of other community organizations, individuals and entrepreneurs. The program will include identification of suitable women-owned businesses, recruitment of advisory panel members, training of entrepreneurs and advisory panel members, provision of on-going support and consultation, coordination of in-person and on-line forums for networking, collection of qualitative and quantitative information and data, and compilation and dissemination of the results and "case stories" of LEAP participants. The goal of the LEAP Program is to provide women entrepreneurs with the type of business advice and quality mentorship that is often more readily available to their male counterparts or to larger corporations, and contributes significantly to their ability to move their businesses to higher levels. The expected outcomes will include: increased growth and profitability of participant women-owned businesses; dissemination of useful information to other entrepreneurs, educators, and business professionals; and development of a specialized curriculum and support system to facilitate the creation and utilization of advisory panels by women business owners.

Awarded February, 2001

Dakota State University
Project Director: Dr. Rick Christoph

The objectives of the proposed two year project is to create an "Information Technology (IT) Entrepreneurship" minor that would be offered to students at Dakota State University and an "IT-Entrepreneurship Certification" program for those involved in a large information technology training program being conducted by Dakota State University. Several existing courses at Dakota State University will be changed to incorporate knowledge and skills that will help DSI graduates and people completing an IT-training program to explore entrepreneurship opportunities in the information technology field and to successfully pursue those opportunities. The project will be done in collaboration with the successful entrepreneurs who are affiliated with the Small Business High Technology Institute in Phoenix, AZ, the South Dakota Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Center and a major National Science Foundation sponsored project to train IT-workers in rural communities. The anticipated outcome will be for several of the graduates of the program to start IT-businesses in rural communities employing rural residents trained through the NSF ITR project. This will help to create high tech small businesses and employment opportunities in rural communities.

Duquesne University
Project Directors: Drs. Suhail Abboushi and Mary McKinney

To offer Duquesne University students the opportunity to enroll in an entrepreneurship course(s), program(s), or a minor targeting non-business majors in a collegiate setting. This program will combine the resources of the A.J. Palumbo School of Business in partnership with other schools at the University and the Chrysler Corp. Small Business Development Center to offer an innovative and cutting edge program that uses the resources of the university and community to provide a practical entrepreneurship education. It is the goal of the program to educate students in the undergraduate degree programs at Duquesne University to become entrepreneurs either upon graduation or in the years following. Duquesne University’s proposal is to custom design programs in entrepreneurship for non-business as well as business students in the form of integrated, joint programs of study as well as the option of a certificate in entrepreneurship.

The George Washington University
Project Directors: Drs. Erik Winslow and George Solomon

The George Washington University’s School of Business and Public Management (SBPM) Center for Family Enterprise (CFE) in cooperation with the Distributive Education Clubs of America (DECA) plan to build upon the successful program introduced in 1998 called "Training Tomorrow’s Entrepreneurs" and finish the certificate program. THE NEW ENTREPRENEURS will be the continuation of the initial program and will be offered to the over 25,000 students and teachers who are members of DECA. This program will be targeted to the 10,000 plus DECA students projected to attend the four 2001 regional, and the 2001 and 2002 national, DECA conferences. GWU and DECA will offer a series of short two-hour workshop sessions covering a variety of subjects dealing from the role of free enterprise in democracy to self-employment and concluding with creating your entrepreneurial venture on-line or the traditional method. GWU’s award-winning, nationally recognized entrepreneurship program, headed by Drs. Erik Winslow and George Solomon, will design and present the curriculum to the DECA students. GWU also plans on providing support to DECA as the program is launched nation-wide.

Loyola University New Orleans
Project Director: Dr. J. Patrick O’Brien

This grant will provide support for (1) development and implementation of a web-based distance learning Certificate Program in Music Business Entrepreneurship for non-degree seeking professionals who are active in the music industry, (2) development of an academic Minor in Entrepreneurship for non-business majors at Loyola University, and (3) development of a Minor in Entrepreneurship for business majors at Loyola University. Funding is requested for the Certificate Program in Music Business Entrepreneurship and the Minor in Entrepreneurship for non-business majors only. No funding is requested for development of the Minor in Entrepreneurship for business majors since this is outside the scope of the program. However, this minor will flow directly from the development of the Certificate Program and the Minor for non-business majors, providing additional benefits to the university beyond the scope of the grant. Our goals are to use grant funds to:

• Establish a user-friendly web site for distance learning that will deliver a Certificate Program in Music Business Entrepreneurship to professionals who are active in the music industry, allowing them to gain entrepreneurial skills while continuing to pursue their business activities.
• Develop and tailor teaching modules in entrepreneurship for industry-specific issues so that the web-based distance learning program for professionals in the music industry and the classroom-based minor for non-business majors are both customized for their specific target audiences.
• Develop videos for teaching modules using professionals in the music industry, communications, law, and other areas of arts and sciences. This will allow students to hear from successful entrepreneurs and other professionals working in their areas of interest about problems encountered during development of their businesses and strategies used to overcome obstacles to success.
• Provide access to entrepreneurship education to the entire student population of the university and to a selected audience of working professionals within the community, with an eye toward eventual expansion of our certificate programs in the future.

We expect the Minor in Entrepreneurship for non-business majors to significantly increase the exposure of Loyola University New Orleans students to the concept of self-employment. Additionally, we expect the Certificate Program in Music Business Entrepreneurship to expand our outreach into the business community and set the stage for further educational outreach programs. These programs will increase the university’s visibility in the local community and will provide a springboard for expanding our entrepreneurship programs to a national audience in the future. Finally, the outcomes achieved in this project will provide many of the core materials for the development of the Minor in Entrepreneurship for students in the College of Business Administration.

University of Massachusetts at Amherst
Project Director: Dr. James M. Theroux

Business schools around the country have experienced growing student interest in the study of high-growth technology companies. Unfortunately, schools located outside the hotbeds of technology face geographical barriers to providing their students with meaningful ways to study tech companies. Also, technology is moving so fast that schools struggle to keep their course material current. Responding to this situation, the faculty at the University of Massachusetts Entrepreneurship Program propose to develop a new kind of course called the online case method for teaching high-tech entrepreneurship (OLC for short). Using internet technology, OLC can bring schools around the country close to the action at high-growth companies, and be up-to-the-minute in content. It is not new to use the internet to deliver a college course. What is new in OLC is the combination of the internet with new pedagogy. The main innovations in pedagogy are the delivery of a case study in real time, and the presentation of a case study that explores company-building in more depth than previously attempted. Funds from the Coleman Foundation would be used to mount the first run of OLC.

The University of Tennessee-Knoxville
Project Director: Dr. Fred D. Tompkins

The University of Tennessee (UT) in collaboration with Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) recently launched an innovative graduate-level program in entrepreneurship, called the Technopreneurial Leadership Center (TLC). The program has the primary objective of actually launching new technology companies directly from the two-year program which was formed with the motto "I came for a degree, and left with a company." This is not a case study program, but an actual complete and thorough preparation from conception to incorporation to initial funding and operation. This alone provides a unique objective and approach, but even more exciting is the partnership with ORNL, the Department of Energy’s (DoE) largest national research laboratory, with an annual budget approaching a half-billion dollars and employing hundreds of scientists and engineers. ORNL invents and develops many new technologies every year and currently has in excess of 1000 patents in its portfolio. The TLC has reached an agreement with ORNL’s managing contractor, UT/Battelle, which provides for access to and licensing of key technology patents to the student teams/companies that complete the TLC program. This proposal to the Coleman Foundation seeks to secure funding for the student teams to partially offset expenses incurred in launching their companies. These expenses include incorporation costs, legal fees for patent licensing, and preliminary market research in support of their initial business plans.