A $210,000 grant from a Kansas City organization will help expand the entrepreneurship program in Missouri Western State University’s Craig School of Business. The grant from the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City – Kansas City will create a micro-lending fund for Missouri Western students who want to open franchises in Kansas City’s urban core. The area includes approximately 50 square miles, and the University will partner with national and regional franchises.
Students from academic areas across campus, not just CSB majors, will be eligible to apply for the loans, said Rick Zimmer, instructor of business, who helped write the grant proposal.
“This grant is significant because the ICIC board has acknowledged the quality and sustainability of our entrepreneurship program,” said Carol Roever, interim dean of the CSB. “The grant will provide opportunities for students who want to open businesses in the Kansas City metro area.”
Missouri Western also plans to leverage the grant with matching funds from donors, Zimmer said.
He noted that the grant will allow Missouri Western’s entrepreneurship program to expand beyond its current success. That success includes its partnership with Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory and Steve Craig, founder and president of Craig Realty Group and Missouri Western benefactor. Through that program, CSB alumni are eligible to compete to own and operate RMCF stores, and currently, 14 alumni operate RMCF or Aspen Leaf Yogurt (also owned by RMCF) stores in 10 states. Additionally, in May, one CSB alumnus was awarded a Fresca’s Mexican Grill in Woodburn, Ore., which was owned by Craig.
The grant also fits into the CSB’s plans for the development of a Center for Entrepreneurship and an entrepreneurship minor. The minor is slated to be offered starting in the spring semester of 2014.
The Initiative for a Competitive Inner City is a national nonprofit organization founded in 1994 by Harvard Business Professor Michael E. Porter. The Kansas City affiliation began in 1997 and in 2008, it began working with entrepreneurial and management programs at colleges and universities. The board recently dissolved the ICIC-KC entity and approved granting the remaining assets of approximately $525,000.
ICIC-KC received a number of proposals and narrowed the list to three, which included Missouri Western. Administrators from Missouri Western, along with two alumni who own RMCF stores, gave a presentation to the grant committee. The funds were divided among two of the finalists.
Zimmer said that many students today are looking at entrepreneurship as a viable career, and Missouri Western will now be able give them more assistance and opportunities.