The University of Rochester is among the best colleges in America for budding entrepreneurs, says Fortune Small Business magazine in its current issue. Rochester was one of 10 colleges and universities—including Harvard, Howard University, and the University of Texas at Austin—cited for cutting-edge programs.
The recognition comes three years after the University of Rochester received a $3.5 million grant from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, which with matching funds, formed the basis for a $10.5 million initiative to make entrepreneurship an integral part of courses and programs across all six schools at the University: Eastman School of Music, Warner School of Education and Human Development, the College of Arts, Sciences, and Engineering, Simon School of Business Administration, the School of Medicine and Dentistry, and the School of Nursing. The initiative is coordinated through the University Center for Entrepreneurship.
"Entrepreneurial energy has now become deeply embedded in every school and program at the University of Rochester," said University President Joel Seligman. "This builds on our long tradition of being a relatively small research university distinguished for our high degree of cross campus collaboration and nimbleness."
William Scott Green, Dean of the College and director of the University Center for Entrepreneurship, said: "The initiative of the Kauffman Foundation gave the University the chance to do something unprecedented in our history. The grant ignited exceptional cooperation among the deans of our six schools, and this powerful and fresh collaboration has sparked educational innovation across the board. Entrepreneurship is an increasingly visible feature of a Rochester education.
"The recognition by Fortune Small Business," Green said, "encourages us to continue to develop and enhance courses and programs in entrepreneurship across the University." Green recently was named to the Kauffman Panel on Entrepreneurship Curriculum in Higher Education, through which the foundation seeks to create a framework that will become the gold standard for an exemplary, university-level educational program in entrepreneurship.