Aug 23, 2007
Fortune Small Business Names DePaul Among Nation’s Best Colleges For Entrepreneurs
DePaul Entrepreneurship Program Celebrates 25th Anniversary This Fall
Three DePaul University academic programs, two affiliated centers and a business school faculty member earned high marks from Fortune Small Business in its review of entrepreneur education programs, “America’s Best Colleges for Entrepreneurs,” which appears in the September issue of the 2.4-million-circulation magazine.
DePaul won praise from the magazine for emphasizing “learning by doing.” The undergraduate entrepreneurship program was chosen as one of the best 25 programs in the country, and the Kellstadt Graduate School of Business was named among the nation’s top 26 “B-schools with entrepreneurial flair” for its entrepreneur MBA concentration. The School of Music’s performing arts management program—an interdisciplinary music, business and theatre undergraduate major—was named one the 23 best cross-discipline programs. Top-tier programs were listed alphabetically and not ranked numerically by the magazine.
Initiatives by two DePaul centers and a management department faculty member also were recognized for their excellence. Earning applause from the magazine were the Coleman Entrepreneurship Center’s “Start Your Own Business” workshop and its community consulting program—which links Chicago-area business owners with student teams who gain real-life experience as consultants—and the Center for Creativity and Innovation’s Idea Clinic, a quarterly public forum for students, alumni and professionals to brainstorm new business concepts.
Fortune Small Business conducted a poll of students, entrepreneurs and academics across the country to choose 18 top professors. Gerhard Plaschka, associate professor of management at DePaul, earned a nod for using a variety of teaching methods—including guest speakers and computer simulations—to keep students motivated.
The Fortune Small Business accolades give DePaul’s entrepreneurship program two reasons to cheer this fall. The 25th anniversary of the program’s founding will be celebrated Oct. 3 at a special dinner for faculty, staff, alumni and local entrepreneurs.
“Our entrepreneurship program earns acclaim because DePaul’s faculty and staff have devoted 25 years of hard work to creating a prestigious curriculum dedicated to academic excellence, experiential learning and entrepreneurial activism,” said Harold Welsch, Coleman Entrepreneurship Chair and program founder. “We look forward to celebrating our accomplishments with the many successful entrepreneurs who have emerged from DePaul.”
Fortune Small Business said its university picks were based on seven months of interviews with hundreds of entrepreneurs, professors, students, alumni, university administrators and venture capitalists. “We asked each of our sources to tell us which programs they considered to be the most innovative and effective, and why,” according to the magazine. “While a classroom may not teach you how to become a risk-taking visionary, it can provide the business skills that help hasten success.”
DePaul’s programs have received high ratings from other national business media. Entrepreneur magazine ranked DePaul’s graduate program 2nd and the undergraduate program 3rd in the nation in its annual rankings issued last October, the fifth year the magazine included DePaul in its top tier. This fall, the September/October issue of Success magazine is expected to name the Coleman Entrepreneur Center on its “hot list” of the top 50 centers for entrepreneurs.