From graduate programs to walk-in advice and quick bootcamps, South Florida colleges offer training to those who want to start their own business.
Florida International University, one of eight Kauffman Foundation centers around the country, has been emphasizing entrepreneurship since 2004, when the university received a $3 million grant from the foundation to create programs and courses. While undergraduate and graduate business students have an entrepreneurship track, courses also are sprinkled throughout the university in the areas of religion, law, chemistry and other fields of study.
Irma Becerra-Fernandez, director of the Pino Global Entrepreneurship Center at FIU, teaches an entrepreneurial course on information technology. She focuses on social networking and Web-based businesses, and builds her curriculum around the concept of having fun. Modeling her class after the TV show Shark Tank, Becerra-Fernandez holds a mini-competition for students to present their best business ideas. She brings in prominent business leaders as judges. One year, the winning team developed a MySpace widget and won a video camera from MySpace Latina.
Read: “Schools offer new entrepreneurial classes,“ an article from the MiamiHerald.com.
