BBPE Programs

Collegiate Entrepreneurs Series

Overview

The Collegiate Entrepreneurs Series program is a program committed to the goal of increasing awareness, understanding and interest in entrepreneurship through the coordinated development of an educational and applicable business curriculum that will provide students access to resources, opportunities, and experiences for tomorrow’s business leaders.

The three central themes of the program are; (1) promoting awareness and interest of entrepreneurship to the African American and minority academic communities (2) providing a fundamental understanding of entrepreneurship while reinforcing the importance of gaining applicable business experience and (3) granting students access to a highly challenging and competitive business program that provide in the successful establishment of future businesses.

Conference Entrepreneurs Series Program

Leading students are encouraged to submit applications for scholarship admission to the national Collegiate Entrepreneurs Series program.  Students must submit a formal two-page essay describing their entrepreneurial goals and outline how they will benefit from attending the program. The essay must be approved and accepted by the conference organizers. Scholarship recipients will be notified no less than 30 days prior to the program start date.

Students will be exposed to top entrepreneurship educators and business owners from around the country.  They will benefit from a creative academic curriculum that will be complimented by real business models and industry challenges.  They will benefit from the opportunity of gaining access to a team of highly trained and knowledgeable professionals while gaining extended knowledge through group interaction and the development of shared experiences and synergetic relationships.

The CES program is as an extension of the Black Business Professionals and Entrepreneurs (BBPE) business training and development model which provides students with the opportunity to network with business owners and executives to pursue job opportunities, entrepreneurial mentoring relationships and other business opportunities. High-achieving graduating students are provided the opportunity to attend the annual BBPE conference upon completion of the CES program.

George and Diane Yarbrough CES Scholarship Fund

This program is geared toward high achievers who demonstrate a serious pursuit of academic excellence, entrepreneurship and community service.  Students who set this example can be awarded a scholarship to aid them in realizing their dreams of self-employment and economic self-sufficiency.

Students are invited to apply for a George and Diane Yarbrough CES Scholarship with the deadline for submission being April 15^th of each year. Scholarships are awarded to cover the cost of a student’s housing, meals and tuition for attendance at the CES program.

Interested students must submit a completed application, one-page essay, photo and two letters of recommendation.  Letters of recommendation must reflect one (1) personal and one (1) business or academic reference.  Scholarships are

reviewed and awarded based on the merits of the completed packages received with high consideration given to a student’s academic performance, community service and entrepreneurship interests as detailed in their essay. A limited number of scholarships will be awarded each year.  The application process and scholarship requirements promote a competitive environment that grants access to the most committed students. 

About the Program

“Entrepreneurship education program alumni start more new businesses, develop more products and are more likely to be involved in high technology endeavors than their peers.  Alumni of entrepreneurship programs make more money and their firms grow more rapidly, relative to other business school alumni.”

 -Impact of Entrepreneurship Education
by Alberta Charney, Gary D. Libecap

Why the program is important:

• Entrepreneurship students are more satisfied with their jobs.
• Entrepreneurship students  are three times more likely to be self-employed
• Entrepreneurship students have annual incomes that are 27 percent higher and own 62 percent more assets.
• Entrepreneurship is key to the economic self-sufficiency of a disadvantaged group of people
• Entrepreneurs become great contributors to the development, advancement and sustainability of the American economy.

“When accessing the growth of  new business ventures, developing cultural and international  dynamics, technological advancements and a highly competitive marketplace, programs that train students to become entrepreneurships contribute to a more educated, capable and successful global business force.”

- Jewel W Daniels
Executor, CES program

The Collegiate Entrepreneurs Series program provides an extraordinary opportunity for some of the nation’s brightest and committed students to benefit from a concentrated entrepreneurship program facilitated by leading university professors and industry professionals.  Additionally, students are granted the opportunity to engage entrepreneurs attending the annual BBPE conference while also sharing one another's knowledge.

Founded by Jewel W Daniels, this innovative program is made possible by the support and joint vision of strategic partners dedicated to building a future tomorrow’s business leaders. The CES faculty is composed of historically black college and university professors, non-HBCU academia, faculty, visiting lecturers and entrepreneurs.

The CES program is a unique hybrid of academics and practical business fundamentals that challenges students’ knowledge, drive and commitment to building an enterprise and contributing to the business landscape. It is conducted in an intense, highly-advanced and stimulating environment of concentrated seminars, team projects, on-site cultural experiences and alliance building.

 The program’s goal is to nurture the interest and pre-existing thirst students have for embracing entrepreneurship.  Additionally, students will attend classes that are built around educational learning modules that address Team

Management, Business Finances, Marketing, Customer Service, Legal Structuring, Consumer Targeting, Business Development Techniques, Pricing Goods and Services and more. 

A prominent team of entrepreneurs, educators, faculty and guest lecturers will present on these series of topics and others.  Classes will be conducted in multiple breakout sessions with instructors rotating between classes and students being allowed to fully participate in classroom discussion and projects.

Students will be required to attend the complete program and integrate their business learning curriculum to successful meet the requirements for lessons and projects administered by CES facilitators.  The desired result is to graduate a class of students who can better articulate their business goals, excel within a business entity, pursue entrepreneurial endeavors and realize their individual business ownership dreams.

It is also crucial that students walk away with the awareness that they are integral partners in the gaining the greatest benefits from the program.  Their ability to learn is limited only by their imagination and effort while the doorway to their success being demonstrated by our ability to facilitate a dynamic program.

Program Overview/Outline

Overview: The Collegiate Entrepreneurs Series is an intense high-performance academic and business curriculum based program available to students 18 to 24-years-old.  The three-day program is facilitated through a combination of seminars, classroom instruction and special events guided by professors, academic faculty members, lecturers and guest speakers. Students engage each other in an intimate environment that challenges them on industry trends, core business fundamentals, financial planning, marketing development, competitor analysis and more.  Students will be afforded the opportunity to explore the City of Savannah’s business district, visit culture sites and participate in the National Black Business Professionals and Entrepreneurs Conference.  Ultimately the goal is to create partnerships with colleges and university that will allow students to earn one college credit toward their course work

Course Content: The following topics will be covered in the Business and Entrepreneurship conference.

Readings: Students will be instructed to complete all reading assignments as administered by program facilitators with a required minimum of two (2) business books and/or academic business papers included n the curriculum.

Class Projects: Throughout the course of the program, students will participate in a team exercise to simulate a business idea for a particular product or service selected by the group that will be presented at the close of the program.  Students will be placed in groups of five with the winning team receiving feedback from guests’ lecturers/speakers.  A winning team will be selected and each group member will receive of $100 book scholarship, one-year subscription to Black Collegian Today and complimentary full BBPE conference package.

Off-site experiences: Students will be provided with an opportunity to visit sites that may include some of the City of Savannah’s cultural and historic sites, an area business, preferably the CES sponsoring partner and the local HBCU Savannah State University.

Click Here To Download A CES Scholarship Application.  This form is in the Adobe PDF file format.  If you don't have the Adobe Acrobat reader you may download it for free at Adobe.Com.