ENTREPRENEURSHIP STUDIES AT GROVE CITY COLLEGE

Grove City College, committed to Christian principles, has striven to be equal in academic quality to the finest four year colleges. We seek to provide liberal and professional education of the highest quality that is within the reach of families with modest means who desire a college that will strengthen their children's spiritual and moral character.

Major or Minor in Entrepreneurship

Grove City College offers Entrepreneurship as a major for business students and a minor for non-business students. Encouraged by strong administrative and faculty support, by the spring of 2002 the entrepreneurship curriculum grew from a few courses to emerge as a major course of study, Students receive a strong foundation of the principles of accounting, finance, management, marketing, etc., and then focus-in on the world of small business and start-ups.

Each entrepreneurship major has a core of 27-credit hours of business courses covering the basic functions of business, which also fulfills their quantitative general education requirements; they are required to take between 21-27 hours of entrepreneurship courses and have 9-credit hours of entrepreneurship related electives from which to choose.

Students take a total of 7 hours of quantitative business courses, 9 hours of economics including a course focused on entrepreneurship theory, and 15 hours of finance and accounting courses. Students may choose to emphasis small business, manufacturing, or retail in their entrepreneurship electives.

Students complete 61+ hours of general education requirements in humanities, sciences, foreign language and electives and may choose to have a mentor their last two years of their program, and the student and the potential mentor are profiled to help ensure a suitable match.

The capstone business plan course is taken in the fall of the senior year, and the plan is automatically entered into the campus-wide business plan competition from which students receive written feedback from a team of five practicing entrepreneur reviewers; students may utilize the counsel of one outside entrepreneur as an advisor but all plan work must be their own original work.

To foster entrepreneurship campus-wide, cooperative relationships have been developed across the academic departments and disciplines of engineering, computer science, physics, and communication by offering a 24-credit hour minor for non-business students; this provides liberal arts and science students an opportunity to apply their disciplines within an entrepreneurial reference.

Program Objectives

Grove City College is a leading faith-based undergraduate educator in entrepreneurial education among private colleges in the United States today. Grove City College prepares men and women of character to lead, innovate, and think entrepreneurially whether in business, ministry, or public service--to be role models and job creators, rather than just job seekers.

The Entrepreneurship program seeks to inculcate an understanding of the pivotal role of Austrian free-market economics, shaped by a thoroughly Christian worldview, across our curriculum.

Students will understand the “how” and “why” of this economic theory, which is unique in that it is the only school of economic thought that identifies the entrepreneur as the catalyst in the free market.

Through the use of computer-based simulations, writing business plans for real businesses, mentoring and critiquing by practitioners, one-on-one interaction with practicing entrepreneurs, and a required internship, theory is combined with practice.

Students will understand the need to ethically create value for the customer drives the engine of business, and that a free and competitive market is vital to the process.

Entrepreneurial students will learn the importance of team leadership, strong business ethics, and how to incorporate a Christian perspective into their organization.

Uniqueness of the Entrepreneurship Program

As a small, private, faith-based college, Grove City College provides a quality education and an emphasis on developing students’ characters.  Our low annual cost for tuition, room & board, and a notebook computer that is yours to keep when you graduate is less than $17,634, These are combinations offered by Grove City College that are not duplicated by any school in the United States.  Combined with the integration of non-sectarian Judeo-Christian faith in life and practice, we are unique in the country:

·      Ethical, Christian value-based entrepreneurship is emphasized and woven into the majority of the core business courses. 

·      Entrepreneurship students are required to take a one-semester business ethics course taught by a business professor using real and current cases with special attention on the issue of integrating one’s faith into a secular environment.

·      Students will develop important networking and interpersonal skills through mentoring relationships with accomplished and aspiring entrepreneurs across various industries and disciplines who share in a common vision of starting, managing, growing, and sustaining profitable businesses/organizations guided by Christian principles. An internship within an entrepreneurial or small business setting is required.

·      This unique major within a small college setting fosters an identity with the school and academic program that is second to none, and we build on this by placing students into cohorts by the admission year.

·      Students have the opportunity to attend local and national entrepreneurship conferences without additional expense.

·      All Entrepreneurship majors have multiple opportunities to engage local and regional entrepreneurs in one-on-one and small group interaction both in and outside the classroom. These opportunities are only open to Entrepreneurship majors.

·      Our adjunct entrepreneurship faculty are experienced practitioners who are currently engaged in their professions and are selected because they excel in the classroom and their specific expertise.

·      Nearly all of our full-time faculty hold doctorates, had professional careers prior to teaching, and many have owned/run/worked in small/entrepreneurial businesses.

·      Successful entrepreneurs are heavily involved in the program as guest speakers, adjunct professors, mentors to students, and advisors to the direction and development of the program.

·      Currently, we offer a number of scholarships available only to Entrepreneurship majors, which are awarded annually to both incoming and current majors.

Jobs with a degree in Entrepreneurship

What can you do with a degree in Entrepreneurship?

Outcomes

Our vision for entrepreneurial success extends beyond individual achievement to organizational success and ultimately to our national economic development. Whether it is the individual entrepreneur, an intrapreneuring professional employee who provides the innovative ideas needed to grow an existing company, or someone in governmental leadership, it is the ability to envision a future, to be driven by a mission, to think innovatively about the mundane, and to move forward with self-confidence that our country needs to retain its greatness.

·         As stated earlier, students will understand how cash flow drives a business, why their human resource practices foster or hinder company growth, the importance of planned and effective marketing, and how to network for resources and information.

·      Grove City College has a history of graduating value-based entrepreneurs, and our Entrepreneurship graduates have the knowledge and skills to become financially successful bosses and effective, ethical leaders while using their talents and resources to improve the world.