Entrepreneurship
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Entrepreneurship

Do you want to be able to look at the big picture, understand how different entities within organizations interact, work, and build high performing teams, and have the skills to execute a vision? The entrepreneurship major focuses on those four skills. You can have three distinct career paths: a business owner, an investment banker with an SIE certification from FINRA, or a project manager with a CAPM certification from PMI. Grounded in Jesuit education, you can start-up your career by majoring in entrepreneurship if you want to start your own company or become an investment banker with a focus on startup mergers and acquisitions, or an innovator project manager within an existing corporation.

About

The entrepreneurship major arms students with attitudes, skills, and knowledge to start new businesses, work in family businesses, evaluate startup businesses, or even be a project manager in demand by established organizations. Graduates of entrepreneurial studies are action-oriented and have learned through practical experience using The Wayne House and Scranton Coin. 

Entrepreneurship is a set of technical and behavioral skills that validate ethical value creation hypothesis.

Ahmed Gomaa, Ph.D., CPHIMS
Director of Entrepreneurship

Is the Entrepreneurship career path in Demand?

  • Small businesses account for 46.4% of all employees in the United States (Source: SBA.gov)
  • Project Managers, are intrapreneurs. Employment of Project Management Specialists is expected to grow 7% from 2021 to 2030 (Source: bls.gov)
  • Investment bankers analyze company finances to provide recommendations for deals for public offerings, Mergers, and Acquisitions. there is a 10% projected growth rate from 2021 to 2030 for investment bankers (Source: bls.gov)

Is it for me?

  • Are you a self-starter?
  • Someone who questions and wants to make things better?
  • Are you someone who not only thinks differently, but takes action?

Five Reasons to Choose Scranton for Entrepreneurship

1.
Nationally recognized.   Scranton is nationally ranked among the “Best Undergraduate Business Schools” by U.S. News & World Report. In addition, our Kania School of Management has been included in The Princeton Review’s “Best Business Schools" for 16 consecutive years.
2.
Small classes.    Class size is large enough to guarantee energy and collaboration, but small enough so that each student has the opportunity to fully participate, grow and succeed. There’s a strong sense of community as students challenge and support one another as they move together as a cohort through the program.
3.
Expert mentorship.    Mentors can make the difference between business success and failure. Our professors bring strong business experience to the table. We also engage our alumni and other accomplished business people in our mentoring and teaching.
4.
Ideal location.    It’s just two hours from Scranton to Philadelphia, which is ranked among the top 20 locations for venture capital investment, according to the Martin Prosperity Institute. You’ll learn in the heart of the Boston-Washington corridor, which accounts for $6.2 billion in venture capital investment in the U.S.
5.
Active learning.    Classroom assignments are tailored to ensure that you’re putting your knowledge to immediate use. You’ll benefit from experiential learning and a wide range of extracurricular activities, such as the Entrepreneurship club, our student club, to stretch your talents and enthusiasm beyond the classroom. The program philosophy for courses is “learning by doing”, where three program owned companies are infused in the curriculum, a fashion startup (Wayne Wear), a fintech company (Scranton Coin) , and a Marketing Agency (Wayne Marketing), all located at the Entrepreneurship Program Business Incubator. We also have an academic entrepreneurship honor society, Sigma Nu Tau.

Grounded in our mission, our curriculum is developed based on the lessons learned from the National Science Foundation America's seed fund for technology commercialization.

Ahmed Gomaa, Ph.D.
Entrepreneurship Program Director

  • Preparing You For Personal & Professional Successplus or minus

    You’ll learn these main skills:

    Technical skills:

                    Reflection and ideation skills, with a focus on Business Model Canvas

                    Resources planning, management, and acquisition cross departments

    Behavioral Skills:

                    Teamwork, evaluating opportunities and prototyping to secure the first customer

                    Execution skills to scaling up and exit strategies

  • What You'll Learnplus or minus

    Curriculum

    As you might expect, our curriculum is innovative to match the major!

    Before writing a business plan, students are actively engaged in practical, hands-on projects for experiential learning. As just one example of many, we ask each student to make up a “useless” product and sell it to someone they don’t know. This helps them learn how to get a conversation going and pushes them outside their comfort zone. After the initial shock, they find it to be a lot of fun, particularly when they share their experiences with each other. 

    The entrepreneurship major is open to business students only; however, it’s important to note that the entrepreneurship minor is open to students throughout the University. Non-business students have different requirements than business students.

    Click here to see the curriculum.

    Learning by doing

    There’s no better way to exercise your entrepreneurial spirit than through our student-run businesses, which have included a fashion startup business, a fintech company, and a marketing agency. Students gain valuable experience by pitching ideas, creating business plans and managing all facets of the organization, from operations, to finances, to personnel. Those activities are infused in our curriculum and are aligned with the skillset our students learn in the program. Students can try different things in an environment where they can make mistakes and learn from them.

  • Pursue Your Passion and Make a Differenceplus or minus

    Consistent with our Jesuit commitment to social justice, students in the entrepreneurship program are encouraged to create valuable change in the world. And, you don’t have to wait until you graduate!

    There are plenty of opportunities to get involved while you are on campus. For starters, there’s the student-run business, where a percentage of profits is donated to social entrepreneurship initiatives. 

    A Jesuit education fosters a strong sense of self and social responsibility to others. Scranton graduates who have started successful businesses have found this mindset to be essential in their “business-oriented” decision-making. 

Careers

Where will Entrepreneurship Take Me?

Graduates take their valuable entrepreneurial mindset into three types of careers:

  • Business owners who developed an entrepreneurial mindset and hone the skills they need to build a new enterprise. Those enterprises will have the potential for growth and to be funded.
  • Project managers who are to manage projects, and identify and pursue opportunities for innovative growth within an existing organization where they may be employed.
  • Investment bankers who focus on valuations in venture capital, equity financing, and M&A (merger and acquisition) market spaces.

Employment Opportunities:

Entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial thinking are needed in all facets of business. Doctors, lawyers, occupational therapists, psychologists, accountants – you name it – all need entrepreneurial skills to run their own practices.

Some of our students start their own business immediately after graduation, while some will even start their own before graduation. Our goal for every student who wants to start a business is to secure their first paying customer before graduation. For those who pursue a project management career, they will be equipped to earn a CAPM certification from the Project Management Institute. For those who want to pursue a career in Investment Banking, with a focus on Mergers and Acquisitions, they will be equipped to pass the Securities Industry Essentials® (SIE®) Exam from FINRA—the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.

How Scranton Gives You a Competitive Edge

Competitive Edge

We are committed to broadening your horizons outside the classroom. Each year, our faculty takes entrepreneurship students in a Global Practicum trip, where the students explore mergers and acquisitions opportunities, and managing remote teams. The entrepreneurship program has committed to this event and other activities on an annual basis, including local, regional and national entrepreneurial competitions.

Accreditation

AACSB

The Kania School of Management is accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB).

Take the Next Step

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Get the Facts

View PDF with Program Overview
& Curriculum

For More Information

Office of Admissions
The Estate
Scranton, PA 18510
1-888-SCRANTON or (570) 941-7540
570-941-7572
admissions@scranton.edu

Ahmed Gomaa, Ph.D., CPHIMS
Program Director
(570) 941-7760
ahmed.gomaa@scranton.edu

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