Study: Gen Z is more likely than millennials to get into the startup game
Entrepreneurship 101
A 2011 survey by Gallupfound 77% of students in grades 5 through 12 said they want to be their own boss and 45% planned to start their own business. Today, many of those students are now in college.
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For example, when I first met Hunter Swisher as an undergraduate plant pathology student at Penn State, he was busyturning scientific turfgrass researchthat he learned about in class into a commercial product and startup company.
Swisher saw commercial potential in his professor’s research and worked closely with him to transfer that knowledge into a possible viable product. Swisher connected with the university’s startup incubator and vast alumni network, put in the work, and became a CEO of his ownsmall businessbefore he walked across the stage at commencement in 2016. Today,his companyPhospholutions has five employees and counting and their treatment is being used on more than 50 golf courses in 10 states.
Swisher is not alone in pursuing his entrepreneurial dreams while still in college. He is just one of many entrepreneurs starting their own companies by leveraging resources at their colleges and universities.
Penn State,Indiana University,University of North Carolina,Georgia Tech,University of Michigan,Ohio State, and other leading public institutions all have thriving entrepreneurial centers that are available to all students, as well as community members and businesses.Penn State alone has opened 21 entrepreneurial spaces across Pennsylvania, and in just two years, we’ve engaged with more than 4,500 students.
Moving scientific discoveries into a breakthrough business opportunity is powering economic growth and creating jobs. Consider that nationally – in 2017 alone – theAssociation of University Technology Managersreported:
Undergraduate students at public universities are fueling this trend
Traditionally, higher education has focused their investment on faculty entrepreneurs, hoping to find a breakthrough like the nextGatorade(University of Florida) orLyrica(Northwestern University). Since universities don’t own the rights to undergraduate intellectual property, there has been less incentive to support these efforts.
Until now.
While we universities are taking a risk on students without a guaranteed immediate return on investment, we think the potential outcomes – for example in alumni support and building our local economies – are worth it.
With their minds set on this entrepreneurial future, a common narrative has emerged thatstudents are skipping collegeto start their own businesses. In reality,8 in 10 studentsbelieve college is important to achieving their career goals. 63% of those same students – all between the ages of 16 and 19 – said they want to learn about entrepreneurship in college, including how to start a business.
Land-grant and public institutions are contributing to the practical education that can contribute to economic growth and development. Indeed, generally speaking, talent-driven innovation was identified as the most important factor by theDeloitte-U.S. Council on Competitiveness.
Through skills training and engaged entrepreneurial experiences, students are realizing the profound impact they can have by solving a problem as well as overcoming obstacles, failures and flops – all under the umbrella of university guidance and resource support.
Innovation is inspiring and a wise investment
Research and education have always opened doors that benefit the nation we serve. Today, public colleges and universities are well-positioned to transform our economy and infuse it with innovation and energy. As chair of the Association of Public & Land-grant Universities (APLU) newly formedCommission on Economic and Community Engagement (CECE), I’m working with universities and our government partners to identify key areas crucial to maximizing the impact of public research universities.
By the end of this year, tens of millions of Generation Zers will enter the workforce. The challenge for higher education will be how to help the world of business to better harness the many talents, energy, and inquisitiveness that Generation Zers bring to the table. The many partnerships that universities have formed with entrepreneurial students serve as an important first step toward this goal.
Editor’s note: this piece has been updated to reflect accurately Phospholutions’ current commercial agreements.
This article is republished fromThe ConversationbyEric J. Barron, President,Pennsylvania State Universityunder a Creative Commons license. Read theoriginal article.
Story byThe Conversation
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