Young Guns A new generation of college students makes entrepreneurship its business.

The bed isn't made. The coffee maker balances precariously on the bookshelf next to a well-worn copy of The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People. The only signs of life are a personal computer running a contact management program and an answering machine doing its job. Welcome to the modern-day college dorm room.

This is college, but it's a far cry from "Animal House." Instead of ditching class to swill beer, a new breed of college students is more likely to skip school to attend breakfast meetings with venture capital groups or powwow with potential business partners. College campuses are becoming veritable hothouses for entrepreneurship as formalized academic programs yield a new generation of street-smart,
business-savvy entrepreneurs.

Jennifer Kushell is part of this generation. She's ambitious, driven and definitely young. The 23-year-old president of her own company, The Young Entrepreneurs Network, the recent college graduate nurtured her inborn entrepreneurial tendencies while still attending Boston Uni-versity. Now, having started four small businesses, all while still in school, Kushell has a head start in the real world. Her business publishes an online directory of entrepreneurs from 40 countries--all between the ages of 10 and 35. She's also started a quarterly newsletter that explores issues young entrepreneurs face.

Guiding Forces

There is a host of reasons entrepreneurs are getting younger andyounger. For one thing, downsizing and widespread layoffs havecreated a job market that's low on security, to put it mildly.For young people, many of whom have seen their parents and otherrelatives become casualties of changing economic times, the optionsupon graduation aren't quite what they used to be.

For savvy students, however, that isn't necessarily bad.Kushell, for one, believes "the opportunities for youngerpeople are now more [plentiful] than ever before. These people canstart their own businesses and graduate as the president of acompany."

Administrators at universities that offer entrepreneurshipprograms say they've witnessed a change in college students inthe last few years. Bill Bygrave, director of the Center forEntrepreneurial Studies at Babson College in Wellesley,Massachusetts, says the change in students' attitudes is"profound."

"Young people are recognizing that they've got to bemore responsible for their own destiny," Bygrave says."For many of them, that means starting their owncompany."

Young people also have more entrepreneurial role models thantheir parents did. America's ideas of success have changed asmuch as the economy has. Fifty years ago, judges, lawyers, doctorsand the like were held up as our highest role models. These days,though, if you were to ask a bunch of 11-year-olds who their herois, they'd likely say Bill Gates.

Finally, another reason more young people are striking out ontheir own is that some of the nation's most noted universitiesare offering entrepreneurship programs that prepare students forthe rigors of the lifestyle. Now, instead of simply learning bytrial and error, young entrepreneurs can immerse themselves inpractical classes that put them ahead of the game in running smallbusinesses.

Staying After School

In 1970, only 16 universities nationwide offeredentrepreneurship courses. According to Karl Vesper, a professor ofbusiness administration at the University of Washington, todaythere are more than 400 such schools. Among the most highlyregarded are Babson; Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah;Cornell University in Ithaca, New York; Harvard Business School inBoston; New York University in New York City; University ofCalifornia, Los Angeles; the University of Southern California(USC) in Los Angeles; and the Wharton School of Business inPhiladelphia. Not only are there more schools offeringentrepreneurship programs today, but the in-stitutions thatpioneered entrepreneurship education have fine-tuned and beefed uptheir programs, even adding graduate degrees to the mix.

As far as reputation is concerned, Babson College wins, handsdown. It was ranked number one for its undergraduateentrepreneurship program in 1995 and 1996 and for its graduateprogram in 1995 by U.S. News & World Report. "Mostpeople would agree we have the most complete program in thecountry," says Bygrave. The undergraduate and graduateentrepreneurship programs were completely revamped three years agoto give students practical information as well as ideas andtheories. As part of the MBA program, faculty members team-teachcourses so students get two points of view in one class. Babsonalso touts its mentor program, in which teams of four students workwith local corporations on special projects.

Babson's undergraduate entrepreneurship program exposesstudents to a well-rounded mix of information systems, managementand entrepreneurial skills. Each class of ap-proximately 42students is given $3,000 with which to start a business. During thefirst semester, students decide on a concept and write a formalbusiness plan; during the second semester, they launch and nurturethe company. Businesses have ranged from dorm-room food-servicecompanies to campus CD clubs. "So far, no one's gonebankrupt," says Bygrave, "but if they do, we'll putthem through a simulated bankruptcy."

The faculty members at Babson's Center for EntrepreneurialStudies are serious about small business. For one thing, most ofthem have run entrepreneurial businesses themselves and now want topass on their knowledge to the next generation. Babson graduateSteve Spinelli, for instance, returned to the school to teach afterhelping found oil- change franchisor Jiffy Lube and establishing anetwork of 47 franchises. Bygrave himself started two smallbusinesses before joining the faculty at Babson.

Bouncing their ideas off Babson's professors and studentshelped Michael Healey and Robert Lofblad launch their Needham,Massachusetts, company, PC-Build Upgrade Centers Inc., before theygraduated with MBAs in 1992. The laboratory atmosphere at Babsontaught the partners a lot about problem-solving--and gave them asafe place to work out the kinks. "It's a lot easier todefend potential fatal flaws in your business with a professor thanto actually be sitting behind the desk when that situation comes upand threatens your business," says Healey, the company'spresident. "Graduate school makes you [consider potential]problems ahead of time and forces you to work through differentscenarios."

Healey says the practical nature of Babson's graduateprogram also helped inoculate them against failure in the realworld. "One of the reasons I went back to school was because Iknew I wanted to start my own business, but I lacked marketingskills; I didn't know what it took to launch a business or howto look at and assess opportunities," says Healey. "I hadthe drive, but I couldn't take that and turn it into abusiness." That's where Babson came in. Now, five and ahalf years later, Healey and Lofblad's $4.5 million company hasthree locations and shows no signs of slowing down.

Theirs is not the only après-graduation success story. TheEntrepreneur Program at USC hosts an annual networking day wheregraduates compete with each other to present their stories to theirfellow alumni. In March, more than 110 alums competed for 10 spots.The chosen businesses ranged from a coffeehouse and an auto towingbusiness to several Internet companies.

Entrepreneur Program director Tom O'Malia says more and morestudents are showing interest in USC's undergraduate andgraduate entrepreneurship disciplines. Why? "They're beingrealistic," says O'Malia. "Our full-time MBA studentsare looking to join emerging firms. They know they don't wantto end up working for a large, bureaucratic company. And ournighttime graduate students know what they don't want to do.The cubicle [they sit in during the day] is a little too tight andstifling."

Of course, USC's Entrepreneur Program is no walk in thepark. Completing the courses in the face of the typical collegedistractions is almost as challenging as, well, running a smallbusiness. "The average student spends 300 to 400 hours writinga business plan in the second semester of their undergraduateyear," O'Malia says. "We're competing against thebeach and the beer, and to get that many hours out of somebody ispretty incredible."

Part of the allure is USC's faculty. Like most instructorsin entrepreneurship programs, those at USC have run and sold theirown businesses, so they know whereof they speak. O'Maliadescribes USC's seven entrepreneurs-turned-professors as havingthe "battle scars and torn pants" to prove theirmettle.

Luckily, the kind of students drawn to entrepreneurial programsmakes teaching them that much easier, according to Allan Bailey,executive director of San Diego State University's (SDSU)Entrepreneurial Management Center. "There are always argumentsabout whether entrepreneurs are born or made, and althoughthere's a lot to be said [on both sides], a curriculum likethis helps [young entrepreneurs] develop tools and skills tocomplement their own personal attributes and drives," Baileysays. "If we can help them avoid some mistakes, that willimprove the potential success rates of those who gravitate into theentrepreneurial venue."

SDSU's program is heavy on the MBA side and light on theundergraduate side (two classes--Introduction to Entrepreneurshipand In-troduction to Writing a Business Plan). But as with otherschools' programs, interaction with community businesses is alarge part of SDSU's regimen.

The Wave Of The Future?

Although Jennifer Kushell didn't graduate from a formalizedundergraduate entrepreneurship program at Boston University,she's a sterling example of the kind of raw ambition that'spresent in every young entrepreneur. Even though she was influencedby the five small-business go-getters in her immediate family,Kushell's grit has come largely from within. Does she think ofherself as a role model? Actually, she's pretty modest."Any young entrepreneur who pursues their own company while incollege and sticks to their guns is a role model," shesays.

Entrepreneurship programs have undoubtedly changed the waystudents approach their careers--and the students themselves havechanged the way university faculties structure their academicprograms. To illustrate the change in the perception ofentrepreneurship as a legitimate academic pursuit, Bygrave recallsthat 11 years ago, when he joined Babson's faculty, studentstypically asked whether it might look bad on their resumes if theytook a class in entrepreneurship and then tried to get a positionat a big company. "I never get asked that questiontoday," he says.

Bailey agrees that the "E-word" plays a much biggerrole in business schools' vocabularies these days. In fact, hebelieves entrepreneurship is the major that best represents thegrowing interdisciplinary nature of business. Says Bailey, "Ina lot of ways, entrepreneurship is the interdisciplinary businessmajor of the 21st century."

Contact Sources

PC-Build Upgrade Centers Inc., (617) 449-7575, info@pcbuild.com;

The Young Entrepreneurs Network, 376 Boylston St., #304, Boston,MA 02116, (800) 455-4393.