The Cal State Fullerton Center for Entrepreneurship has received a two-year grant from the state of California with a first-year award totaling $550,000; the second-year award will be announced in 2023. The grant enables the College of Business and Economics’ signature business startup program to foster social entrepreneurship in the Orange County community, including among youth and young adults.
“Our center has been around for more than 20 years. Initially, we had a capitalist view of starting new ventures but have witnessed a sea change driven by the consumer,” says John Bradley Jackson ’77, director of the center. “15 years ago, our students wanted to be rich, get a home in Newport Beach and drive a Ferrari. Today, students are looking to make improvements in our community, make the planet better and help people. There has been a shift from purely capitalistic new venture creation to social enterprises.”
With the support of state Sen. Josh Newman (D-Fullerton), the Center for Entrepreneurship participated in a more than $8.5 million collective grant program designed to transform North Orange County into a social enterprise hub. As a member of the NorthSTAR OC Collaborative, the grant is for building the social enterprise ecosystem and creating illuminated pathways to entrepreneurship for underrepresented and underresourced communities.
Ultimately, the NorthSTAR OC Collective itself was approved, ensuring the center received $550,000. The other entities in the region receiving grants include the RevHubOC, OneOC, the North Orange County Community College District, the Orange County Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, CIELO, Advance OC, the Orange County MultiEthnic Collaborative of Community Agencies (OC MECCA), and the Social Science Research Center at Cal State Fullerton.
“We are seeking to embrace social entrepreneurship in North Orange County, recognizing a spectrum that spans from nonprofits to social enterprises,” says Jackson, who notes that outdoor clothing manufacturer Patagonia, which is focused on ethical manufacturing and habitat preservation, is an example of the latter approach. “Patagonia is a rather lofty comparison, but our hope is to create an environment where social enterprises can be created that will make profits while helping people and the planet, or what is known as triple bottom line.”
Putting the Grant into Practice
The Center for Entrepreneurship is planning to soon expand its Startup Incubator efforts, which began in 2015. Offering services to students, alumni and the community, the preference in enterprise selection will be for concepts that perform a social good.
The 2022 Titan Fast Pitch Competition, which tasks middle school, high school and college students from across the Southland with developing startup pitches and presenting them to real-world judges in exchange for scholarship awards, has a novel social enterprise focus, thus fostering interest in these startups among Generation Z.
Entrepreneurship coursework at the College of Business and Economics will also include a new focus on mission-driven social enterprises.
A summer high school boot camp focused on social enterprises is also in the works, which would run in 2023 and 2024, during the duration of the two-year grant.
“We need to seed entrepreneurial thinking and build awareness about it prior to college,” says Jackson. “Then young people can be thinking about starting companies or joining new ventures. Children around age 11 and 12 start opting out of STEM-related activities and classes, which is also when bad choices can appear. It will benefit our society to intervene earlier by building awareness in entrepreneurship, a positive alternative.”
For more on the Center for Entrepreneurship – including how to get involved as a startup, student, faculty member or prospective mentor – reach out to csufentrepreneurship@fullerton.edu.
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