Nebraska Center for Entrepreneurship Helps Students Navigate Troubled Job Market

The most successful entrepreneurs are those who’ve been able to visualize opportunity where others see nothing at all. That propensity for pulling ideas out of thin air is indispensable in an ailing economy, where employment is increasingly hard to come by. In today’s rocky professional landscape, it’s safe to say a fair share of available jobs are those that don’t exist. Yet.

For students schooled in the business of business, bringing a fresh idea from conception to cash-in is standard operating procedure. But college students majoring in other areas have little idea how to make opportunities for themselves when positions fill and prospects dwindle.

That’s where the Nebraska Center for Entrepreneurship, part of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s College of Business Administration, steps in. Since 1981, the center has provided entrepreneurship courses to anyone interested, going so far as to waive class prerequisites for non-business students looking to gain valuable job skills.

Staff - Nebraska Center for Entrepreneurship

“As it gets harder to get jobs in this economy, we see renewed interest from other (UNL) colleges,” said Kathleen Thornton, NCE interim director. “Students were not necessarily finding the jobs they wanted. Many of them were thinking about going into business for themselves, but didn’t have the business training and didn’t know where the resources were. They only knew what they’d learned in their disciplines.”

NCE, the second oldest such center in the country, makes it a point to fill those gaps in a student’s business savvy. Thornton estimates the Nebraska Center for Entrepreneurship has helped some 1500 students this year alone, either by hooking them up with mentors already established in Lincoln’s business community, or by reaching out to them through entrepreneur workshops custom-tailored to specific academic disciplines.

“We do one day workshops where we go in and tell them about the classes we offer and how that will help them round out their education if they want to be an entrepreneur,” Thornton said. “We also share a lot of success stories with them to let them know that other people from that discipline have gone and started their own businesses. When these students get done, they have some contacts and resources.”

But even with all this aid being handed out to non-business students, the NCE makes sure business college scholars aren’t left in the dust. The center endorses multiple business contests to spark the creativity of future entrepreneurs, giving them a chance to put their next great idea to the test. On February 25th, the Nebraska Center for Entrepreneurship and Lincoln’s Young Professional Group are teaming up to hold the 2010 Make it Happen UNL Student Quick Pitch Competition.

“A quick pitch is basically an ‘elevator pitch’ in which you have the time from the bottom floor to the top floor to share your idea,” Thornton said. “Students will have three minutes to pitch their idea to a panel of local entrepreneurs, business people and service providers, and then answer questions.”

The contest is open to anyone from high school freshmen to college students, and competitors will be duking it out for cash prizes. As an added bonus, the contest will be held in a Memorial Stadium skybox, providing a full view of the field below.

Through all its work helping students and fostering small business growth, Thornton believes the Nebraska Center for Entrepreneurship reflects the spirit of Nebraska itself.

“People in Nebraska are very entrepreneurial minded – I mean, who’s more entrepreneurial than a farmer?” she queried. “People here are very independent, and I think the ability to identify opportunity and try to find the means and the way to make it happen is present all around the state.”