Last week, Willow Bauer took part in a strategy session on how a fledgling Winterset business could attract investors, and two days later she attended the Carnival of Creativity workshop. Not all college students can say they had that kind of week.

Both of these hands-on learning opportunities were part of Bauer’s coursework in entrepreneurial management, a major Drake University added this fall. Deb Bishop, director of Drake’s John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center, helped launch the new major for students interested in concepts related to starting and expanding a business. In designing the program, the goal was to build on the College of Business and Public Administration’s mission of “bringing the world into the classroom” with interactive learning opportunities and face time with business owners.

“We are trying to have an increased level of engagement between students and the community,” Bishop said. “While we think there is an awful lot you can learn from books in the classroom, what you can learn from people in the business community is very beneficial as well.”

Bishop said the entrepreneurial management coursework goes beyond the “nuts and bolts of starting a business” to cover what it means to be an entrepreneurial person. For this reason, the major is expected to appeal not only to entrepreneurs, but “intrepreneurs,” or people who work for someone else but function like entrepreneurs in their jobs.

“We are going to teach how to do a business plan and all those different aspects of what it would take to successfully launch or grow a business,” Bishop said, “but we also wanted the major to be more broad to cover things such as creativity, calculated risk-taking and innovativeness – things that would encapsulate what it means to be an entrepreneurial person.”

Bauer, a sophomore majoring in marketing and entrepreneurial management, is among 24 students who have declared a major in entrepreneurial management. She plans to own her own business someday, possibly a consulting company.

“I’m really looking forward to the innovative approach they’re taking with the whole major,” Bauer said. “It’s real hands-on learning, where you go beyond the classroom to get down and dirty with how you actually go about starting a business.”

The first class under the new major is Entrepreneurial Leadership. As part of the class, each student is paired with three mentors during the course of the semester. Bauer’s first mentor is Adam Steen, a growth capitalist for Transition Capital Management in West Des Moines.

Steen said he volunteered to be a mentor because TCM, where he works with his father, is interested in supporting entrepreneurs. His firm specializes in venture capital and private equity fund advising.

“Starting a business can be a long process, and if our time helps lay the groundwork for a viable business, we’ll be happy,” Steen said. “My theory is that the more people these students know before they get out of school and try to start their own business, it’s better for all of us.”

Steen, 26, is one of the younger mentors working with the Drake students. Some of the other mentors are veteran business owners Bill Krause (Krause Gentle Corp.) and Don Peschke (August Home Publishing Co.). Bishop said about 25 people have agreed to be mentors for the students, and she wants to find more.

“We would like to have a variety of mentors involved so we have a better chance of matching students up with entrepreneurs who have similar interests,” Bishop said. “We have a tremendous entrepreneurial community in Des Moines, and it’s my goal to build relationships between students and the community.”

Bauer said working with Steen has given her new insight into what it takes to run a business. She also likes that instructor Steve Scullen, associate professor of management and international business, brings a variety of speakers to class to talk about their experiences with starting a business.

“Learning from someone who has been out there running a business is a great way to gain knowledge on a subject,” she said.

The entrepreneurial management major requires 28 credit hours in addition to the Drake curriculum required of all undergraduates. The university added two new classes to its course offerings with this major – Entrepreneurial Leadership and Creating a Company – and existing management, accounting, marketing and business law classes were redesigned to address issues dealing with business ownership. Bishop said although entrepreneurial management can be a “terrific” major, students are encouraged to combine it with a second major.

“It would be a good complement for several of our other majors,” Bishop said. “For instance, if a student knows that they want to run their own financial consulting company, they would pair this major with finance.”

Bishop said the next step the university plans to take with the program is to offer a minor in entrepreneurial management. She said instructors in the College of Pharmacy have expressed interest in how their students could benefit from integrating the concepts of entrepreneurship into their curriculum.

“We see a growing need for entrepreneurial education,” Bishop said. “A lot of people out there are trying to start a business, and they may have a lot of expertise in one area, but not all the skills necessary to make that endeavor happen. Through this program, we can help people gain some of those skill sets, such as marketing and finance, that can be stumbling blocks for people trying to start businesses.”