There may have been a drama floor or a cinema floor at your
dorm--but was there an entrepreneurial floor where students with
their sights set on starting businesses could live with other
like-minded people? Today, you'll find these pioneering
programs at universities all over the country. At Babson
College's E-Tower in Babson Park, Massachusetts, for example,
undergraduates learn entrepreneurship by day and live with other
entrepreneurial students by night.
The benefits of living and working entrepreneurship are many,
says Robert M. Kearns, 22, a Babson student graduating this month.
He has spent four years living at the E-Tower, a floor with 21
residents who are all starting businesses or developing business
plans. Says Kearns, "At any point, at 2 in the morning, if I
have a problem there's someone there who's had that
experience and is going to know the answer."
In addition, weekly meetings where students discuss
entrepreneurship with visiting speakers, their peers or the
community at large provide even more value. Enhancing the learning
curve of these programs is the autonomy that many of the students
have. At the E-Tower, students are largely able to decide how they
want the program to run as well as what to include, says Fred
Grant, director of the Office of Campus Life at Babson. It was, in
fact, students who created an office/library out of a room by
setting up a computer, fax machine, copier and myriad resource
materials.
Content Continues Below
Started in 2001, the E-Tower has been home to many businesses,
including Kearns' own Mary-Square Garden Concepts, a
manufacturer and retailer of garden accessories. Run partly from
his room in the E-Tower and partly from his hometown, Greenville,
Texas, Kearns notes that it's the friendly competition and deep
friendships, combined with entrepreneurial education, that make the
E-Tower concept so unique. "I've made contacts and
business partners and [have] been able to get funding by being in
the E-Tower," says Kearns. "These are opportunities I
never would've gotten without [being here]."
Being there is getting easier, as more residential programs pop
up nationwide. For more college residential entrepreneurship
programs, check out the University of Maryland's Hinman Campus
Entrepreneurship Opportunities Program in College Park, as well
as Oregon
State University's Weatherford Hall in Corvallis.
Since 2000, students entering their sophomore year at Clarkson
University in Potsdam, New York, can apply to the
Venture@Moorehouse program to gain entrepreneurial experience while
living in the dorm. To date, business ideas have ranged from a
college-job recruiting website to a service that helps startups
navigate federal bidding contracts and facilitates networking
between vendors, contractors and buyers. Marc Compeau, director of
entrepreneurial programs at Clarkson, says 24 students share
living, learning and working space and come up with a business idea
that they operate out of the space together. Says Compeau,
"It's one of the most valuable experiences they [have
here]."