»Entrepreneurship Opportunities

Chapman is proud to provide students the resources to cultivate an entrepreneurial mindset, nurture their ideas and build a business from concept to fruition. 

These resources are available to students from all disciplines and all types of businesses. This is because entrepreneurship itself is interdisciplinary and collaborative: start-ups require a team, and teams require a variety of expertise (budgets, technology, marketing, etc.). 

Best of all, California is full of opportunities for students looking to start a business:

Academic opportunities 

At Chapman, you can make entrepreneurship part of your degree plan through your major or a minor:

• Business Administration - Entrepreneurship Emphasis: Business Administration majors can select an entrepreneurship emphasis. With this, you will take a series of classes to learn how to successfully launch a business. 
• Entrepreneurship Minor: Students from any discipline can add Entrepreneurship as a minor. This can be a great complement to the specialized knowledge you get from major-specific classes.

You don’t need to be a business major to start a business. In fact, any student can use knowledge from their discipline to either contribute to a team or start a business related to their field (e.g., a film student creating a business for their creative projects, an engineering student launching a tech startup, etc.).

Campus to Career: Payal Vitha '16 (Business Administration - Entrepreneurship Emphasis major)

In this episode of Campus to Career, Payal Vitha talks about how her time at Chapman helped her launch Sonu Company with her sister (her company was accepted to Leatherby Center's incubator program). Sonu Company is a jewelry brand focused on creating personalized pieces for couples.

Leatherby Center for Entrepreneurship and Business Ethics

Chapman’s Leatherby Center provides hands-on experiences to students, guiding them to launch and scale ventures that aim to solve the world's most challenging problems. This includes:

• Regular events and guest speakers: Events include opportunities to meet and connect with established entrepreneurs, as well as community-building opportunities like film screenings, club meetings and more. 
• Mentor programs: The Leatherby Center has hundreds of mentors! Center staff will match you with a mentor whose background and experience best match your business needs.
• Incubator Programs: You can apply to join the center’s 12-week Incubator Program (offered in the fall, spring and summer). If you/your team is selected, participation is free!
• Panther Cage Match: Once you have your business plan, you can present it to a panel of business leaders for feedback and the chance to win cash prizes!
• Facilities and meeting space: The Leatherby Center has classrooms, conference rooms and project rooms throughout. These are ideal places for club, mentor or startup team meetings.

Visit the Leatherby Center

The center is open to visitors—including prospective students and families—on the first Friday of every month. You can tour the space, meet the center staff and see incubator teams working.

If you can’t come visit in person, you can take a short tour led by the director, Dr. Cynthia West:

Chapman Entrepreneurship Organization student club

The Chapman Entrepreneurship Organization (CEO) is an entirely student-run organization. The club creates meaningful opportunities for members to connect, collaborate and develop the skills to become the next generation of entrepreneurial leaders.

• CEO has more than 100 members and meets weekly in the Leatherby Center.  
• The club hosts speakers and events for all interested students.
• You can follow CEO on Instagram and feel free to reach out! You can join immediately upon enrolling at Chapman.

A Day in the life of a student entrepreneur

Go behind the scenes of the life of a student entrepreneur! From early-morning brainstorming to late-night planning, watch how Chapman students turn their passion into purpose and ideas into impact:

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