USF has been named the ninth best graduate entrepreneurship program in the nation for 2007 by the Princeton Review and Entrepreneur magazine. The university’s program, which is just five years old, is included in Entrepreneur magazine’s November issue, ranking the nation’s best educational programs (http://www.entrepreneur.com).

USF’s graduate program in entrepreneurship is ranked number four among public universities in the United States, and USF is the only Florida university to be included in the ranking of the top 50 programs.  No Florida schools are included on the undergraduate list.
 

USF President Judy Genshaft joined Michael Fountain and Robert Forsythe at a recent announcement recognizing the MS in Entrepreneurship ranking.

The Princeton Review, a leading provider of educational services, surveyed more than 700 undergraduate and business schools about their entrepreneurship offerings. The ranking criteria included mentoring, experiential learning and specific course offerings to alumni success and career prospects of current students.

“To be recognized as one of the best graduate entrepreneurship programs in the nation is an outstanding accomplishment reflective of the hard work of our faculty, students and community partners,” said Michael Fountain, director of USF’s Center for Entrepreneurship. “From the start, our vision has been to create an internationally recognized center of excellence for interdisciplinary entrepreneurship, which fosters entrepreneurship education, training, and research to develop tomorrow’s leaders.  This ranking confirms we are well on our way.”
 

Faculty from the College joined a number of Entrepreneurship graduates at the recent
 announcement where center director Michael Fountain announced the program has been recognized as ninth best in the nation.

More than 60 faculty researchers’ technologies contribute 60,000+ man-hours annually to hasten the transfer and commercialization of new and innovative discoveries made at USF, the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and other USF-affiliated institutions. Their work has facilitated the creation of 29 high-technology ventures.

Graduates of the program have many opportunities. Some go to work for venture capital firms, some start new ventures, while others create and grow new businesses. These new ventures bolster existing business clusters and create new business areas of concentration, creating jobs locally and reducing the outflow of highly trained graduates to other parts
of the nation.
 

“We’re thrilled to be recognized as one of the best in the nation by the Princeton Review and Entrepreneur magazine,” said USF President Judy Genshaft. “But it isn’t just this ranking that’s so exciting; it’s the knowledge of what we can achieve when we work in an interdisciplinary way. The entrepreneurship program is part of the College of Business, and it’s a collaborative effort with the College of Engineering and the College of Medicine. This type of collaboration is the way of the future, and it’s what we’re trying to achieve throughout USF.”

Ventures sparked by the entrepreneurship program are important to the regional economy. “It is much better to seed, nurture and grow new businesses than relocate, transplant and graft non-local businesses into our region,” said Fountain. “Roots for home-grown businesses run much deeper than transplanted ones and are able to better weather adverse economic environment conditions and bear more fruit through new business growth.”
 

Despite the program’s youth, USF’s Center for Entrepreneurship has also received other honors. The United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (USASBE) lauded the Center for three consecutive years, most recently in January 2006. USASBE awarded its top national “Innovative Pedagogy for Entrepreneurship Education Award” to USF, honoring the Center’s programs linking business, engineering, science and medicine across the USF Graduate Certificate in Entrepreneurship and Master of Science Degree in Entrepreneurship in Applied Technologies.