Creative Cross-Disciplinary Entrepreneurship ― A Practical Guide for a Campus-Wide Program

The book explains using the example of the University of North Carolina model that successfully implemented cross-disciplinary entrepreneurship. I am the architect of the program. Currently, we have 31 cross-disciplinary courses and another eight that relate to entrepreneurship for a total of 39 courses in 20 departments. The Entrepreneurship program has a major (B.S. Entrepreneurship launched fall 2010), two minors in Entrepreneurship-one for non-business majors, and another for business students (launched fall 2009), and a graduate certificate in Entrepreneurship (launched fall 2010, on-hold for 2011-2012 with the budget cuts) that is open to those with a baccalaureate degree with any major. The certificate has two tracks – Entrepreneurship and Corporate Entrepreneurship. The students are first prepared by completing foundation courses in Entrepreneurship taught in the business school. Then they build on this knowledge by selecting one of seven profiles based on extensive research on job growth for the next twenty years: Creative Industries Entrepreneurship, Family Business, Health Care Entrepreneurship, International Entrepreneurship, Franchising, Social Entrepreneurship, and Science, Technology, and Innovation Entrepreneurship. These profiles can be custom tailored to the university or college's strengths, needs, history, and resources. The students then have the option of choosing elective courses to complete their credit hours in other profiles that may apply to their career goals. The required capstone in Entrepreneurship (the only major that requires an internship in the business school) experience is also based on the seven profiles and custom designed for the student. The unique entrepreneurial internship program targets industry clusters of healthcare and biotech, logistics, wholesale trade, finance and insurance, food processing, retail studies, design, and the arts to further opportunities for our students and the business community that includes shadowing an entrepreneur and specific matched projects agreed upon by the business and student. A unique paid internship which scholarships the student intern one-half from the business school and one-half from the Greensboro Partnership (Chamber of Commerce) is open to only Entrepreneurship majors and minors is available for students since the spring of 2010. The businesses where the students work contribute to the chamber's share. The book will explain how to customize the basic concepts of Creative Cross-Disciplinary Entrepreneurship so it can be used at any university or college. I have examples from implementing the program at a private university of 5,000 students in the Southern United States as well as international university in Australia.

Dianne H.B. Welsh is the Hayes Distinguished Professor of Entrepreneurship at The University of North Carolina Greensboro, Founding Director of the North Carolina Entrepreneurship Center, and Founding Director of the Entrepreneurship Cross-Disciplinary Entrepreneurship Program. She previously held endowed chairs at two universities where she started entrepreneurship centers. She holds a Ph.D. in Management from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and is a recognized scholar in entrepreneurship, family business, and franchising with six books and over 150 publications. She is the Past President of the U.S. Assn. for Small Business & Entrepreneurship, and was a Presidential Appointee to the Board of Visitors for the U.S. Air Force Academy and a member of the Defense Advisory Committee for Women in the Services. She was invited by the U.N. to speak on Entrepreneurship, Commercialization, and Innovation and serves on the NC Innovation Council. As the architect of the UNCG's Entrepreneurship Program, she won the Best Practices Award from the Small Business Institute, the Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Center's Excellence in Entrepreneurship across the Curriculum Award, and the U.S. Assn. for Small Business and Entrepreneurship Outstanding Emerging Entrepreneurship Program Award in 2012. The Program is a recipient of the Coleman Fellows Program for three years. The Coleman Foundation awarded a grant in 2012-2013 for the Spartan Trader Experiential Learning Lab on campus