With employment still lagging in many U.S. regions, the White House brought together minority-serving colleges and top small business experts on Monday to explore the role of historically Black colleges and MSIs in supporting entrepreneurship among current and future students.
“These are institutions that have a great opportunity to prepare a new generation of entrepreneurs and, in the process, to leave no community behind,” said Marie Johns, deputy administrator at the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) at the White House Forum on Entrepreneurship for HBCUs and Minority Serving Institutions.
Historically Black colleges are a key site for small business outreach, she said, as these campuses house at least 17 small business centers.
“We want to help institutions ensure they have the infrastructure to get more young people to think about entrepreneurship as a legitimate and important career choice as any of the more traditional careers,” Johns said. “There is latent entrepreneurial talent out there.”
One leader on the subject is Johnson C. Smith University in North Carolina, which hosted an event in Charlotte in November as part of SBA’s Young Entrepreneur Series, she said. Johnson C. Smith’s entrepreneurship center and think tank has led to the development of dozens of new businesses, from salons to marketing companies.
Another HBCU active in entrepreneurship is Rust College in Mississippi, which has established a strong small business education curriculum, said Cassius Butts, Region 4 administrator for SBA. He also praised Shaw University in North Carolina for an entrepreneurship education program focused on financial industries.
Thanks in part to alumnus Deborah Thomas, Alabama State University is another HBCU with an annual conference on entrepreneurship. Thomas, who founded Data Solutions and Technology, Inc., told White House attendees that the university’s annual meeting is “fostering creativity and opportunity” on a topic – small business ownership – that is increasingly important to students of color.
