Entrepreneurship Degree Program

The Hudsonian Student Newspaper Tuesday, February, 12Friday, February, 15 0 Comments

Department Chair - Accounting, Entrepreneurship, Marketing and the Business Advisement Center James J. Williams. — [media-credit name="Emma Micare" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Department Chair – Accounting, Entrepreneurship, Marketing and the Business Advisement Center James J. Williams.

A new degree program in Entrepreneurship, a 63 credit program leading to an Associate in Applied Science (A.A.S.) degree, is being offered at HVCC starting this semester.

Positive feedback on the program has been coming from students and small business owners. So far, 40 students have declared entrepreneurship as their major, and there are 92 students in Introduction to Entrepreneurship classes.

The 52 students who are not entrepreneurship majors are students majoring in individual studies, business, liberal arts, fine arts, etc. There are also high school students taking this introductory course.

“We are projected to have 70 entrepreneurship majors in the fall,” says James J. Williams, Department Chair for Accounting, Entrepreneurship, and Marketing.

This major is offered through the School of Business. However, students majoring in other areas are able to take this course as an elective.

Hudson Valley is one of the only SUNY schools to offer this two year degree. “This program is for every day entrepreneurs. It’s not high-tech,” says Williams. “We are more focused on the mom and pop type businesses.”

The Kauffman foundation is one of the largest entrepreneurial foundations in the world. This foundation supports an entrepreneurship learning program known as the Ice House Entrepreneurship Program, which is used in the entrepreneurship curriculum.

This is an interactive learning program to help students have the mindset of an entrepreneur. Throughout this course students explore and learn the successes and struggles of being an entrepreneur.

This program is working closely with Small Business Development Centers (SBDC), which assist students majoring in entrepreneurship.

Also working closely with this program is SCORE, which is an association that helps small businesses start and grow.

Since this course started this semester, there are aspects that are still being developed. Leaders of the entrepreneurship program are looking to create a center to help students.

In addition, they are currently in the process of working on articulation policies with other schools.

The courses for the program are offered at both main campus and TEC-SMART in Malta.

“The ultimate goal is to increase the likelihood of success as an entrepreneur to our students,” said Williams.

For more information, contact Williams at (518) 629-7148 or j.williams@hvcc.edu.