New Business Training Model

Five years ago, the University of Maryland in College Park, launched the Hinman Campus Entrepreneurship Opportunities (CEO) Program. The two-year course was established with a $2.5 million grant from alumnus Brian Hinman, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur. It takes 35 students at a time, who must apply for admission. The program and its students are housed in a special high-tech dorm that's designed to give participants a residential learning environment where they experience an entire business lifecycle, from concept to execution to operation.

According to Karen Thornton, the program's director, while 75% of the students take part as a learning opportunity, 25% have actually gone on to create businesses from the ideas they hatched at Hinman. In recent years, Iowa State and Oregon State have launched similar programs based on Hinman's model.

Being an entrepreneur means making your own opportunities, and there's no telling where a good idea can lead you. After all, Virgin Group got its start when 15-year-old Richard Branson dreamed up a magazine called Student in his native London. Virgin Group is now an $8 billion global empire comprising some 200 companies in 30 countries, and in 1999, the celebrated founder became Sir Richard Branson when Queen Elizabeth II knighted him -- for "services to entrepreneurship."