Dr Jeff Cornwall

Paula Lovell sent me this article about the explosion of students starting businesses while in college. It is happening on almost any campus in the country these days. More evidence that the entrepreneurial economy is alive and well.
One of the first new programs that we opened when I arrived at Belmont is our Student Business Hatchery, which is designed to serve just this kind of entrepreneurial student. It is a two room office that provides the basic business infrastructure to support students running businesses on campus. They have access to computers, a fax machine, a copier, file space, and conference table, and so forth. All resources are shared on a cooperative basis (first come, first served). Any student who has a business up and running (or at least close to up and running) is eligible, no matter what major they are studying. If they believe it could help them in running their business, they fill out a brief application and are admitted to the program. In the first year at our small university we had twenty students representing eleven different businesses (most formally incorporated) in our Hatchery Program.
Due to its success, we will be expanding the Hatchery Program this year to include a second location on campus to serve more developed businesses. This expansion is funded in part by a grant we received from the Coleman Foundation.
Several of the students who operated businesses in the Hatchery last year have graduated and are now working on these ventures full time in the outside world. We continue to offer advising and networking assistance, but they are launched from the Hatchery into their own space. They are beginning to hire employees, buy equipment, etc., helping in their own way to expand the entrepreneurial base to our local economy.