Entrepreneurship Coursework

This course provides an overview of the entrepreneurial process. Fundamentals of Entrepreneurship is an introductory course structured to provide an understanding of the critical role entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship play in the global economy. Entrepreneurship will be viewed as a process and way of thinking, to create business ventures, inventions and innovations to solve important problems for consumers and businesses. The focus is on identifying and evaluating ideas and learning the steps and competencies required to launch a successful new venture. Students are challenged to consider the appropriateness of an entrepreneurial career for themselves.

This course aims to foster a creative mindset among students, enabling them to approach entrepreneurial challenges with imagination, resourcefulness and originality. The course will hone creativity as a key skill to drive innovation and success in the startup ecosystem. Emphasis is placed on creativity, both as a learned process and development of creative abilities. This course will provide opportunities to generate, refine and pitch startup ideas.

This course aims to blend the principles of design thinking with the practicalities of launching a successful entrepreneurial venture. It provides a comprehensive understanding of the iterative design process and strategic thinking required to build and launch innovative startups. Emphasis will be placed on identifying user needs, concept generation and prototype development for a successful startup launch.

This course will provide students with practical experience in entrepreneurship through monitored work experience. The entrepreneurship internship provides students the opportunity to acquire context-specific work experience, while enriching the learning process through on-the-job application of concepts and techniques learned in the classroom.

This course will provide students with an overview of social entrepreneurs and how they change the world by addressing social needs and opportunities. Attention is devoted to both nonprofit and for-profit organizations that innovatively address social needs. The importance of a substantive social value proposition and viable economic model is emphasized. Issues in balancing the desire to produce social benefit with the need for professional management are examined.

This course is centered on project-based experiential learning. The entrepreneurship practicum is designed to immerse students in the practical aspects of entrepreneurship. It offers an experiential learning environment with community partners where students apply entrepreneurial concepts, theories and skills learned in class to develop and launch their own ventures. Students work on consulting projects, technology commercialization initiatives, entrepreneurial audits, feasibility studies, job shadowing or other projects that interface with the entrepreneurial community.

Analysis of international business opportunities and practical entrepreneurial issues associated with taking a small/medium-sized business into global markets. The focus is on those businesses related to exporting and importing products and services.

What are the steps and processes involved in creating, funding and operating a startup in emerging markets? The course will use an institutional framework, variations of the lean startup framework and real-world case studies to explain startup creation and institutional challenges in emerging markets. Students will work in a team to create mentor-supported startups. Students will participate in a short-term study abroad (one week) excursion to Mexico to visit entrepreneurial clusters and network with successful startup entrepreneurs. Students will develop entrepreneurship skills, design-thinking skills and intercultural competence skills.

This course provides a comprehensive study of management activities associated with entrepreneurial ventures and small businesses. Topics include analysis of opportunities, development of venture strategy and small business problem solving. Student teams may act as consultants to small businesses or develop new business plans for competitions.