University of Florida

Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation

Location: Warrington College of Business Administration

Mission: “The Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (CEI) was created to teach, coach and inspire students to be entrepreneurial in their lives. CEI provides students the tools and experiences necessary to creatively pursue new opportunities and innovations in the start-up, social, and corporate venture arenas.

Through courses, degree programs and complementary activities such as speakers and workshops, CEI currently serves more than 2,000 students per year. Partnering with other colleges at the University, CEI delivers introductory and specialized courses at both the graduate and undergraduate level, and offers every graduate student at the University of Florida the option to earn a graduate minor in entrepreneurship. In addition, the Jeff Gold Experiential Learning Laboratory—which houses the GatorNest program, theGator Hatchery student incubator and the IdeaGators Co-Working Space—provides students the opportunity to experience real life entrepreneurship while still in school. Co-curricular programs that include consulting to disadvantaged entrepreneurs in South Africa and Haiti, as well as the $40,000 Big Idea Competition, provide additional opportunities to “learn and do”, helping students create an innovative and entrepreneurial mindset.

In addition, CEI offers the nation’s most comprehensive specialized degree program focused on entrepreneurship, the Thomas S. Johnson Entrepreneurship Master’s Program.”

Graduate and Undergraduate Programs:

• Graduate Programs:
  • The Thomas S. Johnson Master of Science in Entrepreneurship Program (MSE) equips entrepreneurs with the skills and savvy to plan, launch and sustain innovative ventures on their terms. Three-piece suits and old-school methods are not the norm here. Big ideas and bold confidence are our prerequisites.
  • Minor in Entrepreneurship: Non-business graduate students can earn a Graduate Minor in Entrepreneurship.
• Undergraduate Programs:
  • Minor in Entrepreneurship (16-18 credits)
    • completed with an overall 2.0 GPA in the minor and a cumulative 2.0 UF GPA

      Provides all undergraduates with a robust set of entrepreneurship courses and experiential learning activities from which students will master the core entrepreneurial competencies required to create or work in new ventures.

      All courses for the minor must be taken for letter grade. All attempts at courses for the minor will be averaged into the minor GPA. All 3000/4000-level courses required for the minor must be taken at UF or via a study abroad program preapproved by the Heavener School of Business. UF flexible learning courses will not count toward the minor.

      To declare the minor, students must first complete ACG 2021 with a minimum grade of C and ENT 3003 with a minimum grade of B.

    • Required Courses
      

      ACG 2021 Introduction to Financial Accounting	4
      ENT 3003 Principles of Entrepreneurship	4
      ENT 4117 Business Plan Laboratory	2
      ENT 4614 Creativity and Innovation in the Business Environment	2
      ENT 4905 Individual Work in Entrepreneurship	1

    • Electives (two minimum)
      

      Any 3000/4000-level entrepreneurship course(s) beyond ENT 3003	2
      MAR 4832 New Product Development and Management	4

• Entrepreneurship Electives

  Enhance your degree with rich courses in entrepreneurship and innovation. Over 25 entrepreneurship courses are available at the undergraduate and graduate levels. All UF students are eligible to enroll in the 6-credit Entrepreneurship and Empowerment in South Africa (EESA) study abroad program and the 2-credit Business Plan Lab, which is part of CEI’s Big Idea Gator Business Plan Competition.

• Doctor of Business Administration

  The Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) program aims to integrate the theory and practice of business with the context of current issues that the business world faces. The DBA is a professional doctorate that emphasizes the application of theory to actual business issues. The DBA program will help candidates develop proficiency in applied research by improving their methodological and analytical skills. Participants who successfully complete the program will be equipped for high-level positions in numerous sectors including higher education, consulting and a return to profession

Student Engagement:

• UF and CEI offer many ways to get involved in entrepreneurship on campus—from degree programs to competitions and study abroad programs to guest speakers, internships, and TEDxUF. Make sure to check out our calendar for information on upcoming events and deadlines. For all of the latest on CEI, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter @UFCEI.

Extracurricular:

• CEI Ambassadors
  • As the student face of the University of Florida’s Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation, our goal is to unite entrepreneurial minds. We encourage student involvement in entrepreneurship by creating programs that inspire innovation through experiential learning activities.
  • Initiatives include:
    • Establishing the TEDx program at UF
    • Writing a proposal for an entrepreneurship major at the University of Florida
    • Creating a workshop titled “Entrepreneurship for Dummies” which taught students the fundamentals of entrepreneurship
    • Creating the WCBA executive summary competition
    • Hosting the annual business cup
• Entrepreneurship Club
  • The Entrepreneurship Club (eClub) aims to serve the broad range of both graduate and undergraduate students at The University of Florida seeking to engage in the topics of entrepreneurship, creativity, and innovation in educative and social capacities by fostering a strong network of like-minded individuals in order to provide value to others in the eClub, the Gainesville Community and the world.

    We aim to achieve this by organizing a diverse speaker series, creative workshops, monthly socials and networking events. We also host and participate in numerous startup events like Startup Weekend, 3 Day Startup, venture pitch competitions and more. We also have access to mentoring and coaching opportunities from successful entrepreneurs and various investors. We promote and encourage immersion in the Gainesville innovation ecosystem and bustling startup community.

    We bring together people from across campus in every discipline, from Liberal Arts and Sciences to Journalism and Business to Engineering and everything in between. Bringing together creative and different points of view is invaluable when forming startup companies.

Community Outreach:

• The Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation focuses on teaching, coaching and inspiring students to be entrepreneurial in their lives, and CEI would not be able to accomplish that mission without engaging the community. The support and involvement from the campus community to the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Gainesville to entrepreneurs across the Gator Nation is critical to the success of our students. To share the wealth of our resources, CEI opens programs like TEDxUF and JumpstART to the public, we support disabled veterans through the VEP program and we welcome high school students to campus each summer through the YELS program.
  • Student Consulting
  • Veterans Entrepreneurship Program
  • YELS High School Summer Program
• Business Plan Research Support

Contact:

• 133 Bryan Hall
  352.273.0330  |  Email