Insights from Teaching Entrepreneurship to College Students

Insights from the UMES classroom:

Washington DC ArchAngels Randy Reade Executive Vice President Washington DC ArchAngels Insights: Teaching Entrepreneurship to College Students during the Fall 2024 semester. He had the privilege of helping Bill Anderson, Founding Board Member of the Washington DC ArchAngels (WDCA), teach Small Business and Entrepreneurship at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES). Mr. Anderson has a long and deep relationship with the UMES Business School faculty, a Historically Black College Universities (HBCU) school located in Princess Anne, Maryland, a rural area.

Our teaching objective was to help undergraduate business majors to think about how to create generational wealth by starting an entrepreneurial company. Neither of them had taught a college level class before, but they dove in and developed a curriculum based on WDCA’s Entrepreneur Assessment and Guidance Report (EAGR), a tested tool that helps to explain the basic elements in launching and growing a new company.

As a first effort at UMES, there was uncertainty about student receptivity in learning from non-professors teaching both in person and online about the basics of starting an entrepreneurial company. Their initial challenge was developing a series of weekly graded homework assignments to help reinforce and expand on class discussions.

The reason? In an age of AI, students could go to the internet and use it to get the work done. This would make the assignment a pointless exercise. So, the challenge was to create assignments that required students to address a problem creatively or at least require individual personal assessments of startup business issues. As an example, in one assignment students were asked to identify and choose three existing companies and then, for each company, provide an analysis of each company’s product or service and based on that analysis, write a summary of each company’s business propositions.

Insights from a real world competition:

The objective was to challenge them to first think about what a business proposition is and then why it is the most important aspect of a company’s success potential. This is only one example of several approaches we help to develop to teach the class. Then, about midway in the semester, Mr. Anderson learned about the HBCU/MI Entrepreneurship and Innovation Conference held annually in Georgia. This event includes an annual competition for student companies at HBCUs.

They also learned that UMES students had never previously participated in this competition. At that point, we encouraged students in the class to develop a viable company that was scalable and write a business plan with a financial model. The students unanimously accepted the challenge and created a pitch deck to be presented at the conference held at the Westin Peachtree Plaza Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia from 04/10/25 to 04/13/25. For information about the conference can be obtained from the link provided below:

 https://www.hbcumiei.org

To support student efforts, we recruited WDCA investors and members as mentors for the students. Several WDCA members responded and coached students to help them go into the competition with a well-developed company, and in their effort compete toe to toe with other HBCUs. Mr. Anderson and I were absolutely delighted with the response of the students. They were all highly engaged with the material and took the tasks to heart.

Their performance was exemplary and each of them, and as a group, were highly respected and professional. They ended up placing first among the Mid-Atlantic schools which included: Delaware State University, Hampton University, Morgan State University, and Norfolk State University. In addition, they finish sixth overall out of 29 universities nationwide.

More importantly, based on their performance they have shown that every one of them could start their own successful business. The class was a success and well worth the effort. Plus, the word has gotten around, and the current semester’s student enrollment has tripled.

Insights from the student participant perspective:

Somuadina O. Egbulam, Honors Computer Science Scholar - Class of 2026

Participating in the Atlanta HBCU/MI Entrepreneurship and Innovation Business Pitch Competition was an unforgettable experience. It pushed me out of my comfort zone and allowed me to grow as both a student and an aspiring entrepreneur.

Presenting my pitch in front of experienced judges taught me the importance of clear communication, adaptability, and confidence under pressure. I left the competition feeling inspired by the creativity and passion of my peers and motivated me to keep refining our business idea. The feedback I received was invaluable, and the connections I made will continue to shape my journey. 

Our students in action:

 Below is a link to a video of our students’ performance during Round Two of the competition in Atlanta.