by Tiffany Musick, Lee University
posted July 18, 2008
) Dr. Susan Harwood |
The Council for Christian Colleges and Universities awarded one grant for $8,930 through their Mini-Grant Program on Free Market Economics: Scholarship, Teaching, and Practice. The application for this grant is a competitive process and is open to faculty from all CCCU institutions.
The CCCU grant will allow Dr. Harwood to conduct a study on the top 25 undergraduate entrepreneurial curriculums across the country. She will be visiting the campuses of Baylor University, the University of Arizona at Tucson, Vanderbilt University, and the University of Dayton, as well as conducting phone interviews with representatives from other schools. In addition, Harwood will lead an extensive literature review, as well as field research on current successful entrepreneurs in the Southeast region. This research will allow her to assess what Lee needs to know in order promote entrepreneurial studies.
Dr. Harwood also received two mini-grants from Lee University. This internal funding is for summer research and professional development.
The mini-grants will allow Dr. Harwood to profile student entrepreneurs. After assessing the process of entrepreneurship and the personal characteristics of student entrepreneurs, Dr. Harwood will compare the student entrepreneurial data with the data to be collected from the CCCU grant research. She will then use this data to pinpoint trends and relate these trends to new students interested in the field of entrepreneurship.
The internal grants will also provide the opportunity for Harwood to study rising entrepreneurs in New Mexico pueblos to examine their ties to social entrepreneurialism. She will research nine different pueblos and learn about the techniques they use to start new businesses and create economic development for their communities.
The research from these grants will result in the creation of an entrepreneur roundtable and website, as well as an entrepreneur class to be offered as an elective.
The roundtable will be offered in the fall to students looking to explore ideas of creating businesses. This endeavor will allow student entrepreneurs to interact and help each other with the planning procedures of business. Students will be able to establish a solid business plan through the roundtable, whether looking to start a business from scratch or brainstorm transitional ideas for an existing business.
"While Lee will not serve as an incubation site for student businesses, the roundtable will provide students with resources for creating a business plan. Lee will focus primarily on entrepreneurial studies and will then help students make connections with others to actually launch their ideas," said Dr. Harwood.
The roundtable will also offer two workshops in the fall. One will focus on how to build an eBay business. The other will allow students to use a software program in order to create a virtual business.
The roundtable will meet at the start of each semester, leaving the remainder for students to solve problems and work out details of their business ideas. The roundtable is not a club or class, but rather a "think-tank" for student entrepreneurs. Any student can be a part of the roundtable.
The website, which will also be available this fall, will further extend resources to student entrepreneurs. The entrepreneurial website will be linked to the Lee website and will include streaming video, blogs, and other data. Students, who have created businesses or want to, will be able to link their websites to this one. This will allow a networking of student businesses and a great deal of assistance for anyone trying to find a particular Lee student's business.
An entrepreneur class, BUS465, will also be introduced as an elective offered regularly to Lee students in the future. While this class does currently exist, it is structured only for cross-cultural use. When all research is completed, the class curriculum will be updated, renovated, and offered in a classroom setting on a regular basis. The class will be launched by next summer at the earliest.
"Approximately 80 percent of American workers are employed by small businesses according to the National Small Business Association," said Dr. Harwood. "Unfortunately, seven in ten new businesses fail in the first three years. Our goal is to better prepare our students to create successful small businesses as well as help small business employers as they work to expand their communities' long term economic success."
Dr. Harwood joined the Department of Business after a long and successful career in the business world. She is the CEO and principle consultant of Potencia Consulting, Inc. in Knoxville. She has also served as director of Human and Organizational Development for Motorola, Inc.
Dr. Harwood holds her Ph.D. and M.A. from the Fielding Graduate University. She has an M.G.A. from the University of Maryland and a B.S. from the University of Akron. Harwood is also a member of the faculty of the University of Phoenix and a board member for the National Academy Foundation for Austin East High School business students.
For more information about the entrepreneur roundtable, website, or class, please contact Dr. Harwood at 614-8498.
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