[ entrepreneurship ]
EARLY
Entrepreneur Education
The Key to
West Virginia’s
Future
KATLIN SWISHER
ExEdge
Nearly half
of the private
sector
workforce in
the U.S., or
approximately
120 million
people, is
employed by a
small business.
Source: www.
inc.com
36
WEST VIRGINIA EXECUTIVE
West Virginia’s mountainous terrain and rural geography have prohibited the estab-
lishment of expansive industrial development in the state’s 154-year history. But with
the prevalence of small-town communities, tourism and artisans, West Virginia is now
becoming an ideal place for entrepreneurs and the development of small businesses.
Small businesses can help address the state’s current economic challenges—they
pay taxes, provide jobs, support families and contribute to healthy economies while
addressing the needs of local communities. Small businesses also have the potential
to expand future economic growth.
“Twenty new, small enterprises that employ five people each are just as good as a
new plant that will hire 100 people, and it is far less likely that all those jobs will dis-
appear at once, as is the case with a closed mine or plant,” says Gene Coulson, execu-
tive director of The National Consortium for Entrepreneurship Education (EntreEd),
a 35-year-old organization dedicated to infusing entrepreneurship across all educa-
tion levels. “West Virginia needs both kinds of economic development.”
Fostering Entrepreneur Education
Coulson aspires to start young West Virginians on an entrepreneurial path at an
early age. With more than 30 years of experience at the West Virginia Department of
Education and now at the helm of EntreEd, he moved the organization’s headquar-
ters to the Mountain State in 2014 to shift the state’s economic outlook.
“Students can use entrepreneurship to either remain in their communities or
return after college,” says Coulson. “As more very small businesses are established,
it is likely that, over time, some of them will become medium-sized businesses, and
a few will grow larger, helping the local economy in rural areas and strengthening
the state’s economy.”
Entrepreneur education is a growing area of higher education. Nearly every com-
munity college and university is establishing new courses, majors, minors and activi-
ties like small business incubators. Most high schools also offer entrepreneurship ed-
ucation programs and activities such as the West Virginia High School Business Plan
Competition and Governor’s School of Entrepreneurship and clubs like the Future
Business Leaders of America and DECA, and yet there still remains a gap in access.