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Advancing Entrepreneurship Through Education and Practice

Student Programs


Located in the College of Business and Public Administration at Cal State, IECE seeks to instill the entrepreneurial spirit in students campus wide and provides them with the practical skills, experience, and preparation to take advantage or entrepreneurial opportunities in a wide variety of environments, from emerging businesses to large corporations. Among the entrepreneurial programs offered to students at Cal State:

Undergraduate and graduate (MBA) degree concentration in Entrepreneurship

Students studying at Cal State can effectively major or minor in entrepreneurship as a component of their degree program. A key component of the educational curriculum is exploring the entrepreneurial mindset and the process of starting and growing a business. Entrepreneurship courses not only cover the relevant and current research and thinking in the field of entrepreneurship, they also bring successful entrepreneurs, investors, bankers, and other practitioners into the classroom as guest speakers and mentors.

Student Fast Pitch Competition

Held annually, this competition was created by IECE in partnership with Enterprise Funding Corporation to give CSUSB students an opportunity to jump-start their entrepreneurial dreams by presenting their business venture to a panel of investors and entrepreneurs. The annual competition consists of up to 15 student entrepreneurs giving 90-second fast pitches to a panel of investors and other members of Southern California's entrepreneurial community. Each fast pitch is judged for the quality of the presentation and its investment potential, and offers valuable feedback regarding the viability of the business venture and the quality of their presentation skills. The best Fast Pitches are awarded cash prizes, with the top cash award of ,000.

Spirit of the Entrepreneur Scholarship

This annual scholarship, established as a result of the Spirit of the Entrepreneur Awards program, provides one year of full tuition support to students studying entrepreneurship at Cal State.

Surado® Distinguished Entrepreneur Lecture Series

This program brings highly successful entrepreneurs, particularly Cal State San Bernardino alumni, to the campus each academic quarter to share their experiences with students, faculty, staff and members of the local community. This program is designed to supplement and extend the curriculum learning of students in the business school, as well as expose students from other colleges on campus to the potential career opportunities as an entrepreneur.

Student Venture Fund

Coinciding with the late 2007/early 2008 launch of an IECE managed Venture Fund, a portion of funds will be allocated to help fund promising proprietary technology-based companies, including bio/med technology, telecom, software, web-enabled applications, et al. that are founded by CSUSB students and faculty. The goal of this program is to encourage further innovation and development of entrepreneurial companies at the university.