Undergraduate Certificate in Entrepreneurship

 A Certificate in Entrepreneurial Leadership offers Mays Business School undergraduate students seeking a B.B.A. or B.S. degree the opportunity to study entrepreneurship in a focused set of courses.  Students who pursue the certificate program must complete all requirements prior to graduation. The Certificate in Entrepreneurial Leadership is designed to develop the competencies needed to successfully create and manage new ventures or to be a driver of innovation within existing enterprises. Emphasis is placed on leadership in three areas: conceiving, exploiting, and managing opportunities. Graduates of this certificate program are provided with the tools to plan for new business start-ups, become leaders in high growth firms, or to become corporate intrapreneurs capable of improving an organization’s ability to innovate. The program requires thirteen (13) credit hours in designated course work from the list of courses below.  Completing the certificate includes taking one (1) hour of an entrepreneurial internship identified through the Center for New Ventures and Entrepreneurship housed in the Department of Management.  In addition, twelve (12) hours of upper level management classes are required.  In addition a new special topics course titled Issues in Entrepreneurship in which entrepreneurs are brought to campus to discuss important issues of the day in an interactive setting is introduced.

•  REQUIRED COURSE WORK:
  • MGMT 440. Creativity and Innovation in Business. (3-0). Credit 3.
    Examines factors that may foster or stifle individual, team, organizational creative performance; presents techniques that may improve the student's creative thinking skills. Prerequisite: MGMT 363.
  • MGMT 461. Entrepreneurship and New Ventures. (3-0). Credit 3. I, II
    The entrepreneurial process from conception of a business idea to the actual start up of the venture; environmental scanning for new opportunities; matching individual skills and attributes with the requirements of the venture; evaluating the viability, growth potential and markets for the venture; securing financing; beginning operations. Prerequisite: Admission to upper division in Mays Business School and senior classification.
  • MGMT 484. Professional Internship. Credit 1
    Organized either through the Center for New Ventures and Entrepreneurship or the students own network this internship is directed at experiential learning in a small entrepreneurial firm or a firm with high growth. Click here to view the requirements.
  • MGMT 475. Leadership Development. (3-0). Credit 3.
    Provides participants both academic grounding and practical experience in health, education and economic development issues that are facing the nation; exercises and simulations designed to improve leadership skills. Prerequisite: MGMT 363.
• Pick one (1) course from the list below:
  • MGMT 489. Special Topics- Issues in Entrepreneurship. Credit 3
    Introduces students to practicing entrepreneurs who will discuss in an open format issues of the day as regards entrepreneurship in general and their experiences and businesses in particular.
  • MGMT 470. Small Business Management and Growth. (3-0). Credit 3. I, II
    Unique aspects of managing and growing small businesses including strategic and operational planning; ethical issues; organizational controls and tools; marketing management and techniques; financial analysis and accounting; risk management; securing growth capital; franchising; family businesses and succession; human resource management; international opportunities. Prerequisite: Admission to upper division in Mays Business School and senior classification.