Starting this fall, University of Iowa students in the Tippie College of Business will be able to major in entrepreneurship .
David Hensley, John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center executive director and professor of entrepreneurship, led an interdisciplinary faculty committee to create the curriculum for the new major and decide what elements of business the track should include.
Hensley said students will now have the unique opportunity to hone several essential business skills through one curriculum.
“We made the determination that it was time to provide business students with an advanced study of entrepreneurship and innovation that would have special emphasis in areas that include technology innovation, entrepreneurial finance, and entrepreneurial leadership,” Hensley said.
Tippie currently offers a few classes in entrepreneurship and the John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center, but Hensley said the major will allow students to focus on the subject even more.
“We’ve been a leader in campus-wide entrepreneurship education and making sure that students from all disciplines have access to entrepreneurship education,” he said. “With this new major, I think it was just the realization that we needed to provide students a more advanced, focused, impactful degree.”
Kimm Harris, UI associate professor of practice, also sat on the committee and emphasized all the different skills students will be able to receive while in the major.
“I don’t think you can go wrong with developing an entrepreneurial mindset,” Harris said. “Whether you want to start a business, lead a business, or be effective in an organization, you can’t go wrong with that type of education.”
Lynn Allendorf, director and instructor of the John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center, said the new major will likely help promote the business school as well and put it on incoming students’ radars.
“I think this will be a great recruiting tool for the University of Iowa,” she said “We run into high school students all the time that want to have a really deep focus on entrepreneurship, so this will be a great experience for them and really set us more on par with our peers throughout the Big Ten.”
Hensley said many college students are now pursuing service-based businesses or businesses on social media while they’re in school, so giving students better resources for starting their businesses just makes sense.
“More and more students are doing side hustles. As the economy evolves, we want to better prepare our students to take some of those side hustles and turn them into scalable business opportunities,” he said. “The interest in entrepreneurship is as high as it’s ever been. It empowers people to pursue their own dreams.”
Harris said the future of business is also going to see many changes as baby boomers continue to age out of the workforce.
“We have a very large transition of wealth and businesses that are going to happen,” she said. “There are a lot of businesses that are going to be looking for new leaders and new owners, and I think that’s a fabulous opportunity.”
