Kamau's Business Blog Page - The World's 1st Black and Minority Business Blog!
Sunday, February 29, 2004
Follow the Money to Business School!
For young students who want to become entrepreneurs please notice where $25 Million dollars in grants is being targeted. $25 Million in Kauffman Grants to Transform Culture of Entrepreneurship on Eight Campuses. Students from all disciplines will have access to entrepreneurship training. Matched grants will generate a $75 million quantum leap for entrepreneurship educationContact:
Wendy Guillies, 816.932.1046, wguillies@ kauffman.org
William G. Armstrong Jr, 212.922.0900, warmstrong@ dgi-nyc.com
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (December 15) - The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation today awarded a total of $25 million in grants to eight U.S. universities that pledged to make entrepreneurship education available across campus, transforming the way entrepreneurship is viewed, taught and experienced. Under the competitive Kauffman Campuses initiative - the first such program of its kind - schools must match the Kauffman grant at least 2:1, ultimately directing a minimum of $75 million for the creation of new interdisciplinary entrepreneurship education programs in American higher education.
While entrepreneurship programs traditionally have been the domain of the business school, the eight Kauffman Campuses schools boldly propose to create campus-wide entrepreneurial experiences that could affect hundreds of thousands of students. Plans range from developing an entrepreneurship minor available to all undergraduate students, to housing student entrepreneurs together, to developing and training dozens of faculty to teach entrepreneurship, to creating student-run businesses on campus. "Entrepreneurship is not a fad - it's an enduring American phenomenon that's as common as getting married or having a baby, said Carl Schramm, president and CEO of the Kauffman Foundation. "If roughly one in ten Americans are trying to start a business at any given time, shouldn't we be preparing more to succeed? These Kauffman Campuses schools will create a boundary-less culture of entrepreneurship, empowering all students on campus to access the skills, orientation and networks that can lead to greater opportunities for them and to the creation of jobs, innovation and prosperity for America."
The selected universities receiving multi-million dollar grants are:
Florida International University, $3 million
Howard University, $3.1 million
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, $4.5 million
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, $3.5 million
University of Rochester, $3.5 million
University of Texas-El Paso, $2 million
Wake Forest University, $2.16 million
Washington University in St. Louis, $3 million
The eight schools were selected by a panel of judges from 15 finalist schools that participated in the six-month Kauffman Campuses competition. In June, each of 15 finalist schools were awarded a $50,000 planning grant by the Kauffman Foundation to develop and submit an innovative, comprehensive five-year plan to inject entrepreneurship training and experiences into the fabric of the university. Additionally, the university president or chancellor from each of the 15 schools led their teams in presenting their plans to judges at the Kauffman Foundation in Kansas City between Dec. 9 and 11.
"College campuses are idea incubators where people learn skills and forge work habits and relationships that serve them all their lives," said Rob Chernow, the Kauffman Foundation's senior vice president of entrepreneurship. "We know there's an entrepreneurial spirit sweeping across college campuses today, and we're thrilled to build on this momentum so that entrepreneurship becomes a natural and vital aspect of the American educational experience."
The Kauffman Campuses initiative grew out of the Foundation's rich, 10-year history of advancing entrepreneurship, which has included substantial support of entrepreneurship education efforts at hundreds of U.S. colleges and universities. The initiative is based on the Foundation's belief that entrepreneurship is the lifeblood of the American economy and that colleges offer an invaluable opportunity for reaching the country's future entrepreneurs: those innovators and leaders who will invent, create jobs and fuel economic growth.
About the Kauffman Foundation The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation of Kansas City works with partners to advance entrepreneurship in America and improve the education of children and youth. The Kauffman Foundation was established in the mid-1960s by the late entrepreneur and philanthropist Ewing Marion Kauffman. Information is available at Kauffman.Org
