GREENSBORO, N.C. - Students at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University who want to succeed in business will be better prepared to do so, thanks to the recent establishment of the Interdisciplinary Center for Entrepreneurship and E-Business.

“Our students are very interested in entrepreneurship, and we know also that entrepreneurship is very critical to economic development locally and nationally,” said Dr. Thaddeus McEwen, director. “The Center will allow us to expand existing programs and resources into a more structured program that stresses hands-on, experiential learning.”

Landscape architecture, business, technology, nursing, horticulture, engineering, computer science, music and journalism represent just a few of the N.C. A&T majors where potential exists to parlay academic knowledge into new business ventures, he added.

A cornerstone of the Center is a new certificate in entrepreneurship program for students interested in individual or corporate entrepreneurship. An important feature will be an entrepreneurship lab which will match students with business executives and entrepreneurs in the community to help individuals or small groups in refining their business plans and getting their ventures up and running. Another feature will be a virtual incubator that will host and provide e-business support to student Internet businesses for their first year.

Other features of the Center will be internships and an entrepreneur-in-residence program, a database of community entrepreneurs to serve as mentors, a Web site (scheduled to go online this month), a resource center, a workshop and lecture series for students and community groups, a student entrepreneur award, and a business plan competition open to high school and college students.

Though the Center is housed in the School of Business and Economics, it has been designed to embrace the entire university. The business school joined forces with The School of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences and School of Technology to create the Center and ensure it would contribute to the interdisciplinary and collaborative learning environment at A&T. The three schools will promote a faculty interest group to brainstorm ideas for incorporating entrepreneurship into non-business disciplines at A&T.

“The Center can serve the needs of majors from just about any discipline, from the performing arts major who wants to figure out how to start a community theatre, to the family studies major who wants to start a child care business, to the music major who wants to sell sheet music on line,” said Dr. Beryl McEwen, coordinator of the Center’s e-business program. “If you’re interested in working for yourself, we want to help you make it happen.”

Evidence of student interest in business can be seen in the growing enrollment in the course in entrepreneurship, which attracted just 24 students yearly in 1995, compared to 140 per year today. 

More information about the center is available by calling Dr. Thaddeus McEwen at (336) 334-7656, extension 4030, or Dr. Beryl McEwen at (336) 334-7657, extension 4000.