But at WCU, student entrepreneurs learn more than just how to make money. They also learn how to give it away.
“One of the basic business principles we instill in our entrepreneurship students is community service,” says WCU business professor Frank Lockwood. “By ‘investing’ in the communities in which they live and operate their businesses, small business owners learn communication, relationship-building and leadership skills.”
That charitable urge is the surprising twist in Lockwood’s class on entrepreneurship. Each term, Lockwood’s students break into teams and develop businesses based on products of their own choosing. From bracelets to toilet-seat covers, parking spaces to bumper stickers, Lockwood’s students have sold it all.
But in the end, the money goes right back out into the community through donations to local community-service organizations. At the end of a recent term, Lockwood’s students handed over a check for nearly $1,000 to REACH, a Jackson County organization that combats domestic violence and sexual assault.
The donation does more than teach the students a valuable lesson. It provides much-needed support for a worthy cause: “Things like this help out immensely, especially with our emergency programs,” says REACH’s director of development, Sandy Frazier.