"When it comes to U.S. job growth, startup companies aren't everything. They're the only thing." That's the conclusion of a study released last year by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation of Kansas City, Missouri. The study goes on to argue that the U.S. would be better off investing in assisting entrepreneurs rather than helping established companies, because the former are creating jobs while the latter are merely shedding them.

That kind of thinking is on display daily at Baldwin-Wallace College (BW), which created the Center for Innovation and Growth (CIG) to support student entrepreneurship and innovation. This month, BW announced that it has landed a $1 million grant from the Phillip E. and Carole R. Ratcliffe Fund of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to support student entrepreneurship programs.

The CIG is designed to facilitate collaborations and small group discussions among students, faculty and business collaborators. Each year, approximately 40 students are selected to be CIG student fellows. As a cohort, these students engage with business leaders, learn concepts of innovation and work on hands-on projects. At the end of their fellowship, they also make a team presentation of their project findings to a client company's senior management team.

According to the nonprofit Jumpstart Inc., more than 50 percent of people age 18 to 24 indicate that they're planning to or have already started a business. Even students who don't start their own companies may end up working for an entrepreneur. That's why Jumpstart and other collaborators have focused on growing the collegiate entrepreneurial ecosystem in Northeast Ohio.

Source: Jumpstart Inc., Baldwin-Wallace College
Writer: Lee Chilcote