"Entrepreneurial education and involvement are clearly not just for business majors anymore," says John Jaquette Jr., director of the universitywide Entrepreneurship@Cornell (E@C) program. "Students from all majors understand that having an entrepreneurial perspective and knowledge will be an asset no matter what career they choose.

Jaquette points out that the ability to recognize and evaluate opportunity and risk, to assume leadership and know how to solve problems creatively are essential skills for entrepreneurial endeavor. Yet, these skills are equally important for students who are destined to be the sole proprietors of their own careers, whatever they may be, he says.

"We want to empower students to realize their own vision of success," he says.

To provide this help, E@C (http://www.eship.cornell.edu), formerly known as Cornell's Entrepreneurship and Personal Enterprise Program, offers 100 entrepreneurially focused courses across eight colleges, experiential learning opportunities, seminars, speaker series, internships, student clubs and an extensive free network of more than 8,000 alumni. Read about the Cornell Entrepreneur Network.

Entrepreneurial education

The desire for entrepreneurship classes is clear: Enrollment in classes affiliated with E@C -- which is governed by eight deans and supported by an advisory council of 40 alumni and more than 50 faculty affiliates across campus -- reached 3,500 in 2005-06.

One of the popular gateway courses, the one-credit course Entrepreneurship and Personal Enterprise Speaker Series (Applied Economics and Management [AEM] 121), gives students the opportunity to learn from successful entrepreneurs (mostly alumni) in fields ranging from technology to social ventures. A companion course, Foundations of Entrepreneurship and Business (AEM 120), focuses on teaching basic business concepts and encourages students to come up with a business idea, which is then developed into a detailed idea presentation to enter in a campuswide competition.

"More than anything else, AEM 120 has taught me that entrepreneurship is not so much an occupation as it is a way of life," says Carly Schwartz '08. "It is not so much a path that one chooses, but rather a path that one discovers they are meant for."

"We want to narrow the gap between the real world and the classroom by connecting the stories, wisdom and resources of entrepreneurial alumni with the spirit, drive and creativity of entrepreneurial students and program participants," says Deborah Streeter, the Bruce F. Failing Professor of Small Business and Personal Enterprise in the undergraduate business program, which is part of AEM in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

To capture insights from guest speakers and other presenters, Streeter has collected more than 8,000 video clips of entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, bankers and angel investors for eClips http://www.eclips.cornell.edu, the largest collection of its kind in the world.

"The collection allows us to have a wide variety of virtual guest speakers in classes and available to students," says Streeter. The collection has been used in some 70 countries and 800 universities and is fully transcribed and searchable by entrepreneur, type of enterprise, industry, theme and type of advice.

Another source of entrepreneurial learning is the Johnson School, which offers over 20 courses in entrepreneurship, many of them available to non-MBA students. Additionally, through Entrepreneurship at Johnson, resources abound for Cornellians interested in starting a business. The BR Triad (BR Legal/BR Venture/BR Incubator) offers legal, funding and consultant services for aspiring entrepreneurs.

And in the College of Engineering, the Harvey Kinselberg Enterprise Engineering Program trains undergraduate engineers in the ways of business, while the Leland C. and Mary M. Pillsbury Institute of Hospitality Entrepreneurship, which was established in 2004 in the School of Hotel Administration and recently renamed following a $15 million gift from the Pillsburys, expands hospitality-focused entrepreneurship opportunities to its students.

Real-world experiences

To get hands-on experience, students work with local businesses in some classes. They also may join any of the seven student-run entrepreneurial organizations on campus, including Student Agencies, the Cornell Entrepreneur Organization, Hotelie Organization, Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital Club.

Entrepreneurship@Cornell debuts its new Web site

To serve as a portal to all things entrepreneurial at Cornell, Entrepreneurship@Cornell http://www.eship.cornell.edu has developed a new Web site where users can:

• view the roster of entrepreneurship-related courses available at Cornell and sort them by college or professor;

• sign up for summer internships or join entrepreneurial student clubs;

• locate entrepreneurship faculty by college and view the latest research in the entrepreneurship field;

• learn about upcoming entrepreneurial presentations around the country;

• register as a company to host summer interns;

• access eClips, the nation's premier video clip collection on entrepreneurship, business and leadership.

Juniors and MBA students can also apply for summer internships to work in a small or mid-sized company through E@C. Since 1987, more than 350 students have been placed in these internships throughout the United States and abroad.

"My internship with ICM [International Climbing Machines] afforded me the opportunity to manage an entirely new robot safety rigging project from developing initial conceptual designs to testing prototypes," says Ian Colahan, mechanical and aerospace engineering '07. "Additionally, the hands-on experience further strengthened my manufacturing and engineering skills."

Students interested in starting a business also have access to Cornell's first Entrepreneur-in-Residence, Brad Treat, MBA '02, who launched his start-up SightSpeed when he was a Johnson School student. Treat provides hands-on operational guidance for entrepreneurially minded students, faculty, staff and start-up companies, particularly those commercializing Cornell technology.

"Our goal is to introduce students to a world where everything is not just about connecting the dots, but creating the dots and then connecting them so students experience themselves as leaders, innovators, creators and entrepreneurs ... roles most of them will most likely assume sooner or later in their careers," says Jaquette.