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The field of entrepreneurship is essential for the growth of the economy, because it generates employment, creates wealth, provides opportunity and serves as a source of innovation. Therefore, there always is a growing need for entrepreneurship. More than a year ago several students in the College of Commerce and Finance, surprised that the University did not provide any entrepreneurial preparation, undertook the task of creating the Villanova Entrepreneurial Society (VES). Since then, this organization has become one of the most active groups on campus. Because of the interest it generated, an entrepreneurial minor was established through C&F with further developments in progress.

“The entrepreneurship minor is focused on generating ideas, qualifying business opportunities, obtaining resources and building a team,” said instructor William Bregman, department of management. It is a semester-long program, comprised of four courses: new-venture management, entrepreneurship marketing, new-venture finance and entrepreneurship practicum.
Dr. James Klingler, assistant professor of management, co-teaches the entrepreneurship practicum with Bregman. Klingler taught the original small business course and Bregman has more than 30 years of entrepreneurial experience. Bregman explained, “In the entrepreneurship practicum, we aren’t just giving the students a textbook and multiple choice tests. We’re coupling thought with hands-on education.”

The students receive hands-on education through creating, designing and operating a real business venture. The nine seniors currently enrolled in the minor debuted “Late Nite, Quick Bite” located in the Corner Grille of Dougherty Hall. Featuring Tex-Mex, chicken fingers, soft pretzels and other refreshments, they opened for three consecutive nights, so that students were able to dine on campus until the early hours of the morning. Profits from the sales were donated to St. Francis Inn, a homeless shelter in Philadelphia.

“This was a step toward living my dream,” said senior Kevin Heher who is majoring in both marketing and finance. “We’re learning it all and doing it all at the same time.” Heher and his peers decided to enroll in the minor because they thought it was a valuable opportunity. According to senior economics major Joe Jesuele, another prevalent reason stemmed from family background.

Now that the students in the minor have this foundation, some plan to enter the Start-Up Challenge, which is the VES’s First Annual Business Plan Competition. The competition is scheduled for March and is open to all majors. “The students are to form teams, develop a business model, based on a predetermined product or service and build successful ventures,” explained junior Travis McMenimon, majoring in Management Information Systems, who is vice president of VES.

VES already has attracted many accomplished individuals. Mechanical engineer junior Adam Siegrist, president of the society, founded an investing business for teenagers. Freshman C&F student Meghan Murphy, inventor of BOINKS! Buddies, is another member of the society who also is an entrepreneur. “Villanova has had similarly talented young people in the past, but now there is a society and a minor available for these kind of students with this kind of aptitude,” stated Bregman.

Sophomore C&F student Lauren Beirne, who eventually plans to own a small business, was pleased to hear about the new offerings: “Most of the business classes and majors prepare students for jobs in the established firms of corporate America, but now we have the option of earning a minor focused on the skills needed to create a start-up business.”

Yet the entrepreneurial minor is just the beginning. The teaching team not only plans to extend the minor to students in all colleges within the University but aspires to create an entrepreneurship co-major, with courses focusing on family business, home-based business and law. Furthermore, the teaching team also hopes to create a Center for Entrepreneurship where students, faculty and alumni can engage in various activities such as summer entrepreneurial camps for children and non-credit courses. Emphasizing the ideal of service, they also hope to have students work with an organization such as the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE).

“Although the real dream,” stated Klingler “is to be the first school prospective students and their parents think of when they are thinking about a high-quality, hands-on undergraduate entrepreneurship education.”

Additional members of the teaching team are Jeffrey Pelesh, assistant professor of accountancy and Michele Masterfano, professor of marketing, who are also both entrepreneurs. Further contributors to the progress of the minor are Stephen A. Stumpf, dean of C&F, who holds the Fred J. Springer Endowed Chair in Business Leadership in the college, James Wooton and Dale Fickett. To receive a newsletter with the latest entrepreneurial updates contact James.Klingler@villanova.edu