A List to Aspire to...
As Louisiana's declining revenue fortunes force budget cuts, reorganization, and refocusing, here's a significant opportunity. Of all the "best of" lists that are published every year, this one could make all the difference for Central Louisiana: U.S. News and World Report's ranking of the best undergraduate colleges for entrepreneurship education.
The assumed glamor in this field goes to the list for MBA programs--an area where everyone seems to want to play. Focusing on this puts a school into a competition with the most powerful, well-funded schools in the nation. And, success in the field often means preparing young folks to go to work for companies far away.
Undergraduate entrepreneurship wins on both of those scores however. There's not a great deal of competition in the field. More importantly, we would be preparing our young people to create and build businesses at or near home. Couple this with a strong community focus on entrepreneurship as a principal economic development strategy (see CAP's ELS initiative) and Cenla could become known nationally as the next great place for entrepreneurs.
The current top ten consists of Babson College (MA) at the top, followed by the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Southern California. The closest to Louisiana is the University of Texas at Austin.
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"Best of" entrepreneur list
Just back from a Baton Rouge Area Chamber 2010 Priority Outlook address, in which BRAC's Adam Knapp lamented the lack of a true university-based research park, something the chamber will be going after in a big way. With funding realities, however, he admitted it will have to be taken on in small chunks. Which leads to the same question for the research park and the entrepreneurial college movements: How can either one gain footing on "best of" lists with current state funding restraints and the lack of private-sector support and traction?
to Junior Guidry
Excellent comment and question. I think that those of us who care about these things must do a much better job of explaining their importance.