Fowlers Lavin Entrepreneurship Center Partners with Local Leadership Organization to Empower Budding Business Owners

Mike Morris of the Entrepreneurship and Adversity Program at Notre Dame University spoke to participants and partners in San Diego County Entrepreneurship and Adversity Program on September 11, 2021. 

San Diego State University’s Lavin Entrepreneurship Center within the Fowler College of Business recently began their partnership with the Center for Leadership and Entrepreneurial Studies in support of the San Diego County Entrepreneurship and Adversity Program. The program is managed by the Center for Leadership and Entrepreneurial Studies with the intent of providing the necessary resources and information to economically challenged San Diegans who want to start or grow successful business ventures. 

With guidance from Michael Morris, the founder of the Entrepreneurship and Adversity Program within the Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame, the San Diego program will provide assistance to the 29 inaugural participants from local underrepresented communities who are in the process of starting or expanding their business ventures. The year-long program features include:

• Training Programs: All participants will take part in a six-week boot-camp designed to offer them the tools, concepts and principles necessary to launch or expand a successful business venture. The boot camp is designed for those with little to no previous training, resources, entrepreneurial background or experience. 
• Mentoring: Following the boot-camp participants are paired with mentors from the San Diego chapter of the Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE) who will work one-on-one with each individual to identify and help to address specific business-related challenges.
• One-on-one consulting: Participants will then have the opportunity to work with SDSU student consultants to work on projects that have been mutually agreed to with their mentors.
• Resource Connect: Participants are connected to community resources through forums, an internet platform and other communications formats. 
• Microcredit: Low-interest and no-interest loans and grants are made available to participants through local organizations and financial institutions.

Theresa Harris (right) of the Center for Leadership and Entrepreneurial Studies addresses a group of program partners and the budding entrepreneurs enrolled in the San Diego County Entrepreneurship and Adversity Program. 

• Research and Tracking: Individuals from the Lavin Entrepreneurship Center and the Center for Leadership and Entrepreneurial Studies will research, identify and monitor each participants’ challenges and successes to determine those elements that are instrumental in their progress. 

“One of the surest ways to alleviate economic insecurity and to increase job creation in underserved communities is for individuals within those communities to establish and manage their own small business,” said Alex DeNoble, executive director at the Lavin Entrepreneurship Center. “We’ve embraced the opportunity to collaborate with the Center for Leadership and Entrepreneurial Studies so that our faculty and students can offer the assistance and guidance necessary to help these budding entrepreneurs launch a successful business venture.”

Those who would like to be a guest speaker or mentor for the program can apply here.