Entrepreneurship is an up and coming major in college education. I was completely unaware that entrepreneurship was even available as an area of study until I was introduced to it as a transfer student at Bradley University in 2008. Today, entrepreneurship is a recognized major on many college campuses and is being introduced as an important topic to almost every field of study. Texas State University has gained national attention for their efforts in teaching students about the business related topic.
Texas State University won the 2012 Collegiate Entrepreneurs’ Organization (CEO) Best Chapter of the Year Award this past November at the CEO National Conference in Chicago, Illinois. This marks the first time that Texas State has won the award in their chapter’s history. Chapters are setup on university campuses to help put what is taught in the classroom into practice. These chapters help student members start businesses, enter competitions, practice fundraising, network with entrepreneurs, host speakers, and more.
Texas State was selected by judges as one of the top three candidates to compete for the Best Chapter Award at the 2012 CEO National Conference. They competed against Bryant University, who had won the award four out of the past five years, and the University of Nebraska at Omaha. After a competition among the top three contenders on site at the conference, Texas State was named the Chapter of the Year for 2012.
One of Texas State’s faculty advisors, Lawrence Herring, had only good things to say about the school’s entrepreneurship club, “Being a part of this CEO chapter has allowed me to meet some of the most innovative young ladies and gentlemen. We have attracted and retained a diverse group of majors, including engineering and marketing. Our students believe that the entrepreneurial spirit they share supersedes and is even enhanced by their academic differences.”
The chapter has started their own T-shirt business, Boko Tees. Boko Tees is a member run business that designs, produces, and sells customized T-shirts for the student body. Since the establishment of Boko Tees in the spring of 2011, the chapter has raised over $3000 in profit. Not only do these T-shirts generate revenue, but are all stamped with the Texas State CEO logo to establish brand awareness on campus.
Aside from the chapter’s T-shirt company, they have held multiple fundraisers, competed in national competitions, and have strong leadership that has grown their chapter membership by 300% in the past year. These are just a few of the ways that the chapter has made a difference, and why they were selected as the best chapter of the year. Congratulations to Texas State University on their excellence in entrepreneurship, and to their chapter on their accomplishment of winning a national award.
Sources
Texas State University
