Launching An Entrepreneurship Certificate at Boston College

My passion project this semester has been working to develop and help  launch an Entrepreneurship Certificate program for nontraditional students at BC’s Woods College for Advancing Studies.  Amidst an abundance of Entrepreneurship degree programs, competitions, and courses in  US colleges and universities, there are relatively few specifically designed for students of all ages and educational backgrounds.  I really enjoyed designing and teaching an Entrepreneurship foundations course to kick off the certificate with these nontraditional students in mind.  As the core, required course for the certificate, my class features a deep dive into the entrepreneurial mindset, business models, and startup planning process.  I built-in a self-discovery and reflection module to focus students on the personal and social purposes that motivate first-time entrepreneurs to found companies.

Another highlight was interviewing so many amazing, inspiring founders as Entrepreneurship guest speakers.  These included Jenny Xia Spradling, cofounder, and Dina Pradel, VP of Marketing, at FreeWill; Bill Behrens and Phil Coupe, cofounders at ReVision Energy; Steve Fox and Debi Kleiman, both entrepreneurs and social impact investors; Lawrence Kosick, cofounder at GetSetUp, Jeffrey Harris, cofounder at Plant Power Fast Food, and Julie Roberts, cofounder at Armored Things.  Each guest shared their founding vision, lessons learned, and advice to aspiring entrepreneurs as well as details about their company’s path to business growth.

Among the other electives I developed for this five-course certificate are Design and Prototyping for Entrepreneurs; Business Planning for New Ventures; Funding New Ventures; Digital Commerce; and Social Entrepreneurship.  As the Entrepreneurship program at Woods College grows in the coming year, more courses and student events will follow.  Stay tuned!