40 years of entrepreneurship at Baylor — and another top 10 ranking

Until the late 1970s, Baylor (like most schools) had no entrepreneurship program. Among academia, there was a popular notion that entrepreneurship simply wasn’t something that could be taught. But a group of leaders here thought differently, and in 1977, Baylor became one of the first universities to create a formal academic program in entrepreneurial studies.

Forty years later, Baylor’s Department of Entrepreneurship and Corporate Innovation, as the program is now formally known, is ranked No. 9 in the nation by Princeton Review/Entrepreneur Magazine — BU’s 9th straight year in the top 10. It includes 25 full-time faculty and staff members, hundreds of students and dozens of programs. Six endowed chair positions have been created to support research efforts, which often overlap with research and development at the BRIC. Every undergraduate entrepreneurship professor has started, bought and/or run his or her own business, and more than 150 other individuals work with students through a mentoring program.

The department encompasses the John F. Baugh Center for Entrepreneurship & Free Enterprise; MBA, Ph.D. and certification programs; and student programs such as Accelerated Ventures (a two-semester experience that enables students to create real companies with real products and services while raising real money), the Institute for Family Business (which studies and promotes family-owned companies), and i5 (an interdisciplinary program that introduces students to the burgeoning market in China).

After all that, it’s no surprise that Baylor’s entrepreneurship program is among the most respected in the nation — or that students are creating businesses left and right while still in college.

Sic ’em, Baylor entrepreneurs!

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