McGuire Entrepreneurship at Work
McGuire Center for Entrepreneurship Funds Eight New UA Courses

Coin of Roman emperor Augustus:
Augustus, Entrepreneur of Empire is one of
the new courses funded by the McGuire
Center.

Students studying a range of topics, from classics to medicine, will have access to new, discipline-specific courses with an entrepreneurship focus beginning next year.

On December 1, the Chris and Carol McGuire Center for Entrepreneurship announced eight recipients of its course development grants, which are available to any University of Arizona faculty member interested in establishing cross-disciplinary or discipline-specific courses in entrepreneurship. Faculty members apply by submitting proposals in the fall; new course design will begin in January for completion by spring. The grants provide modest financial resources to support the course design, as well as curriculum support building on the Center’s expertise.

The courses encompass topics in engineering, sustainability, medicine, management, Slavic studies, classics, retail, and marketing.

“The response this year was very high,” says Sherry Hoskinson, director of the McGuire Center. “Our funding pool originally only allowed for three grants, but because each of the proposals was so strong, we worked to identify additional resources that would allow us to fund eight courses total.” Funding for the grants came from the H.N. and Frances C. Berger Foundation, which is headed by Chris McGuire.

The Center initiated the course development grants in 2003, and the model has proved to be a successful way to generate interest in entrepreneurship beyond the traditional business disciplines. Hoskinson says that the model has been adopted by several other U.S. universities with similar success.

The new courses funded by the McGuire Center course development grants are (note that actual course titles may vary as courses are developed):

• Innovation, Translation, and Medical Entrepreneurship
  Marvin Slepian, College of Medicine
  Business Development and Relationship Management (DL only)
  Todd Allen, UA / McGuire class of 1999, American Para Professional Systems
   
• Technological Innovations for Entrepreneurship
  Shyam Jha, Eller College of Management
   
• Starting an Entrepreneurial Business (DL only)
  Scott Hessell, School of Family/Consumer Science
   
• Project Management for Technical Professionals and Entrepreneurs
  Jane Hunter and Mike Arnold, College of Engineering
   
• Engineering Innovation
  Anthony Muscat, College of Engineering
   
• Business with Russia, Business in Russia: Cultural Competence and Communication
  Teresa Polowy, Russian and Slavic Studies
   
• Augustus, Entrepreneur of Empire
  Cynthia White, Classics, and Lehman Benson III, Management

To find out how you can connect with students — by volunteering your time to judge case competitions, host externships, or mentor students from a distance — contact Jane Prescott-Smith in Eller Corporate Connections.

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