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	Copyright 2004-8 Alliance for Higher Education Competitiveness All Rights Reserved

A-HEC: How did you first become aware of the role entrepreneurship could play in educating students at the community college level?

AMS: We started in a small way by offering a couple of introductory courses in entrepreneurship as part of our Business Degree program in the late nineties. As the interest level increased, it became apparent that we were onto something that was piquing the interest of a significant number of students. In a short time we went from offering elective courses to a full degree option in the Business program. At the same time we were planning the development of our Enterprise Center that would house a Small Business Incubator and a variety of entrepreneurial support services. Essentially we were establishing a center for entrepreneurship for western Massachusetts. We identified this as a niche for our college and believe that community colleges across the country can do the same.

What evolved soon after we opened the Center was the concept of offering a program in entrepreneurship to area high schools which we called the Youth Entrepreneurship Scholars program or Y.E.S. We affiliated with Babson College and their Arthur M. Blank Center for Entrepreneurship.This grew beyond our expectations and led to the creation of a Student Incubator in our Center where high school and college students are provided a professional environment and the full support of the Center in establishing start up businesses. The college has extended its offerings from the high schools to the middle schools and most recently, grammar schools.

A-HEC: The idea of an entrepreneurial curriculum is a relatively recent phenomenon. What resources existed as you developed your programs at STCC? Was there anything happening at the college level a decade ago?

AMS: Indeed it is a very recent phenomenon. Our research indicates that very little was going on a decade ago and in fact relative to the number of colleges in this country, there is still a modest amount of activity in this area. The level of interest and course offerings are growing rapidly as is the interest in developing incubators and emulating programs like the Y.E.S. program. At STCC we used existing resources and faculty who had small business experience. We also called upon local entrepreneurs to become guest lecturers and adjunct faculty. Operating in this fashion did not put a strain on our limited resources. As we expanded however we had to make a commitment to provide new resources.

A-HEC: You have said you believe E-ship education will rival all other emerging fields over the next decade as the most attractive and popular program a community college can offer. Why do you believe this is so?

AMS: I can answer that in a couple of ways. One, from our experience at STCC where the level of interest in all aspects of our e-ship offerings has sky rocketed from its inception to the current day. Two, a recent Kauffman Foundation-GEL Gallup Poll found that 70% of high school seniors want to own their own business and 86% want to know more about E-ship. In 1998 that level of interest was a paltry 10%! I believe that as more and more young people engage in this exciting activity and succeed in operating their own businesses it will encourage others to follow suit. Not everyone can be an entrepreneur, but everyone can learn valuable lessons from formal entrepreneurship education that will serve them well in most any field of endeavor.