New Minor in Entrepreneurship Announced

The Coggin College of Business recently announced a new minor available to students in the Coggin College in Entrepreneurial Studies.

“Statistics show that as many as 40% of college students say they are involved in some kind of family-owned business,” said Dr. John P. McAllister, Dean of the Coggin College. “The Coggin College is proud to offer this new opportunity as entrepreneurial education has become one of the hottest topics in business.”

While the Entrepreneurial Studies minor is new, courses in Starting a New Business, Entrepreneurship and Entrepreneurial Marketing have been at full capacity in recent years. Additionally, two student clubs are active supporting entrepreneurial activities in the Coggin College: Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) and the Entrepreneurial Society.

In fact, the UNF SIFE team is no stranger to great success, with nine regional championships at the SIFE Regional Championships. Most recently, the SIFE team won the ‘Duel in the Swamp’ competition. This competition, held in November at Valdosta State University, will advance UNF SIFE to the National “Duel in the Desert” in Tucson, Arizona in 2007.

Coggin College students also competed in the Florida Collegiate Business Plan Competition, a two-day event in Orlando that was attended by nearly 100 business, government and academic leaders from across the state of Florida. Conceived as a joint effort among Florida’s leading academic entrepreneurship centers, the competition was sponsored by the Florida High Tech Corridor Council, Enterprise Florida, and the Florida Venture Forum, and hosted by the University of Central Florida and Rollins College.
 
Twelve teams from Florida colleges and universities were invited to present at the event after preliminary judging was completed.  They presented written business plans and live presentations to an esteemed panel of judges interested in start-up business investments. The UNF team was a finalist, competing against undergraduate, MBA and doctoral candidates from participating universities.  A campus-wide business plan competition is being planned for early 2007 as well.

For more information about Entrepreneurial Studies, please visit www.unf.edu or call Diane Denslow at (904) 620-1026.