USU's Jon M. Huntsman School Wins Top National Entrepreneurship Award

The United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship awarded first place to Utah State University’s Jon M. Huntsman School of Business for Excellence in Co-Curricular Innovation for its Small Enterprise Education and Development program, known as SEED. The SEED program sends student interns to Ghana, the Philippines, Peru and the Dominican Republic to teach local entrepreneurs professional skills and help them grow their small businesses.

“With 53 universities competing for four national USASBE awards, we’re thrilled that our entrepreneurship program has been singled out for its innovation,” said Dan Holland, an associate professor of entrepreneurship at the USU Huntsman School. “It is a real credit to the team of student interns, in-country business owners, faculty mentors, generous donors and strategic partners that have built SEED into such an impactful learning opportunity. It is educational innovation at its best.”     

Students who intern with SEED study entrepreneurship, micro-finance and small business consulting for one semester, and then visit a country for three months. They help individuals write business plans, launch new ventures, set goals, create budgets, develop accounting practices and organize inventory management systems. The students are mentored and then solidify their learning by mentoring others through the new venture creation process.

“These are brilliant students, from a variety of majors, who could have chosen to intern with large companies,” said Mike Glauser, executive director of USU Huntsman’s Center for Entrepreneurship. “Instead, they have decided to become immersed in these international communities and the everyday lives and businesses of the people they help. They get to see first-hand how business can change lives and impact a family’s future.” 

USASBE, one of the nation’s premier entrepreneurship associations, focuses on advancing entrepreneurship education and is led by professors from the top entrepreneurship programs across North America.  The 2019 USASBE Conference was held in St. Pete Beach, FL.