USF Building an Entrepreneurs' Mecca

Climbathon CEO Jonathan Salem

But after graduating from the University of Florida in 1994 with a degree in engineering — and a young family to support — he did what his classmates did and went to work for someone else.

He switched careers at the height of the tech boom in the late '90s and went to work for a Fortune 500 company but yearned for more independence. Finally, in 2001, he began working on a master's in business administration at the University of South Florida with a focus on entrepreneurship.

In September, he launched Jibidee, an online site where subscribers can inventory everything from grocery lists to vacation ideas. Clary, 39, credits USF's Center for Entrepreneurship with jump-starting his dream of revolutionizing the way people keep track of their lives.

"The entrepreneurship program more than anything else offered support," said Clary, who completed the program in 2003. "It helped me solidify my vision of what entrepreneurship would be for me."

Despite economic downturns, entrepreneurship programs have blossomed on campuses across the country as more business schools are realizing students like Clary want to work for themselves.

According to the Kauffman Foundation, the world's largest organization devoted to entrepreneurship, more than 2,000 U.S. colleges and universities — about two-thirds of the total — now offer at least one course in entrepreneurship, compared with 300 only 20 years ago.

Business analysts attribute the growth to the fact that technology affords today's graduates the opportunity to start a business with much less capital and manpower than before.

But Chris Verlander, senior vice president of corporate development for Associated Industries of Florida, said there's more to it than that.

"You ask young people today, 'Do you want to go to work for TECO?' and they say, 'Heavens no, I want to control my own destiny,' " Verlander said. "There's risk in starting your own business, but maybe not as much as there is in going with a giant entity and three years later being let go because the company decided to downsize."

USF launched its Center for Entrepreneurship in 2002 after decades of offering entrepreneurship courses within its traditional MBA program. It was recognized by the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship three consecutive years beginning in 2004.

Last year, the Princeton Review ranked it No. 9 in the nation after surveying entrepreneurial offerings from more than 2,300 undergraduate and business schools. In September, the Review named it No. 5.

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