Entrepreneurship

Tomorrow's business leaders need to be fast, flexible, adaptable, and able to take charge of their own careers. They need to be able to encourage and harness innovation in their organizations. And they need to be able to identify, evaluate and exploit new venture opportunities.

The Smith School is nurturing great ideas and growing student businesses. We are proud to be home to one of the most distinguished, dynamic, and practical academic entrepreneurship programs in the country. With the Smith School's Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship serving as the hub, the entrepreneurship program covers a wide variety of entrepreneurial subjects, including social responsibility. Coursework is reinforced by co-curricular learning and mentoring, faculty research projects, hosted events, business plan competitions, and professional organizations.

Entrepreneurship Fellows, offered by the Smith Undergraduate Fellows Program, gives undergraduate students at the school's nearby Shady Grove campus the opportunity to specialize in entrepreneurship studies in addition to normal coursework, with special attention given to career launching ventures.

Smith students can also learn how to take great ideas from conception to the marketplace with help from the Dingman Center's active and accomplished Entrepreneurs-in-Residence. Regular Pitch Dingman sessions offer members of the Smith community the opportunity to present business ideas and compete for modest venture funding each month. The Dingman Center connects entrepreneurs with angel investors through its Capital Access Network (CAN). The school also fosters global innovation through the China Business Plan Competition, which yearly awards $50,000 in prizes to fledgling Chinese businesses. Cupid's Cup, an annual business plan competition, showcases young entrepreneurs from the University of Maryland and is made possible by one of Smith's most successful entrepreneurs, Kevin Plank, CEO of Under Armour.

Smith faculty research looks at innovation, the globalization of entrepreneurship, new venture creation, and the diffusion of products in the marketplace.