EWU wins national small business recognition

CHENEY – Eastern Washington University’s fledgling Center for Entrepreneurship has received national recognition as it was named 2020’s top emerging entrepreneurship program by the United States Association of Small Business and Entrepreneurship (USASBE).

According to the association’s website, the Emerging Program Award “recognizes the development efforts of nascent entrepreneurship programs that show early signs of innovation, boldness, and student impact.”

To be nominated, programs must be in the first three years of development or have gone through a major revision during that time period. EWU went through three rounds of evaluation by judges before being named a finalist and eventually besting programs from Wake Forest University, Iona College and Florida Gulf Coast University.

“This is a major international award as programs apply from around the world,” Center for Entrepreneurship director and professor Bruce Teague said in a Jan. 16 news release announcing the award. “USASBE has long been recognized as the leading organization for entrepreneurship research and education.”

According the release, Eastern’s program began in fall 2016, and recently added a bachelor of arts degree in music and technology entrepreneurship. There are currently 39 students declared in the business entrepreneurship major and at least 14 in the new music and technology entrepreneurship degree, Teague said in an email. He added that last number may be higher since not only did the degree launch this fall, but due to accreditation requirements, students weren’t allowed to declare the major until late in the quarter.

Teague said the award’s focus is not on enrollment numbers but on program design and co-curricular opportunities created for students. Eastern has 124 students enrolled in entrepreneurship courses through a variety of disciplines that include faculty instruction in human resources, computer science, STEM design, management information systems and communications.

“The judges complimented the manner in which we have designed our core entrepreneurship courses because of the way it facilitates growing custom entrepreneurship degrees in an interdisciplinary way,” Teague said.

To facilitate that, the Center has a grant that funds faculty attendance at the Experiential Classroom Workshop for entrepreneurship educators through Warrington College of Business. According to its website, the workshop is an “intense” three-day clinic for faculty who are relatively new to teaching entrepreneurship where “best practices in entrepreneurship education” are shared from leaders in the field.

“This program brings together some of the top scholars from around the world and quickly brings professors up to speed in entrepreneurship curriculum design,” Teague said. “As the name suggests, the emphasis is on developing courses where students learn through doing.”

Eastern entrepreneurship students also have opportunities to learn beyond the classroom such as participation in the university’s chapter of the Collegiate Entrepreneurs Organization club (C-E-O) and travel to the C-E-O Global Conference, with two EWU student teams qualifying for the C-E-O Global Pitch Finals in Tampa, Fla. this year.

Students also participate in the university’s “$40,000 4-Stage Startup Challenge,” with stage 3 being a Shark Tank-style competition where Teague said the top-10 student teams enter the Eagles Nest and pitch ideas to other Eagles in an attempt to win $10,000 in prizes “that night alone.”

This year’s showcase event takes place April 9, beginning at 6 p.m., at Showalter Hall Auditorium.

John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].