Elevate your experience and exposure to startups

This certificate requires undergraduate students - business majors or business minors - to focus on three key elements of entrepreneurship:

  1. deming center entrepreneurship certificateAcademic expertise
  2. Professional experience, and
  3. Exposure to the startup ecosystem.

These are accomplished through elective course requirements, an internship with a startup, and attendance at networking and professional pitch events both on and off campus.

Students with a Certificate in Entrepreneurial Studies have a unique set of experiences that demonstrates to employers a familiarity with innovation and comfort in small, adaptable teams. In addition, many students pursue building their own startups while enrolled in the Certificate program, substituting this experience for an internship with an established company.

Certificate Requirements

  1. Declare your intent
  2. Schedule an meeting with our Program Coordinator
  3. Complete the required courses listed below with at least a 3.00 GPA
  4. Complete an approved internship with a startup and write a short paper about your experience
  5. Attend eight entrepreneurship-related events on- or off-campus and provide a short write-up on each experience
  6. Pass a capstone exam in entrepreneurship at the conclusion of your studies

Required Courses

The intent of an entrepreneurial internship is to gain access and insight into an entrepreneurial venture and build your skills needed as an entrepreneur or innovator.

Certificate Submissions

Entrepreneurship Events

You are required to attend eight events or workshops in the Boulder/Denver area to receive a Certificate. For each event your attend, we ask you to write a thoughtful 1-2 paragraph summary on the event. Include what you learned, how it relates to your future goals, or how it fits into your perspective on entrepreneurship. We will not be factoring in length/number of words, but instead your insight, personal perspective, and self reflection as it pertains to the event, the speakers and those in which you networked.

Submit an event summary. 

Internship

Typically, startups need to be less than 5 years old and have less than 200 employees. However, we encourage you to submit a request if you feel that what you will be doing is entrepreneurial in nature; for example, a large Fortune-500 company may start a new "intrapreneurial" unit, or an older brand in the community may be attempting to scale after years of their status-quo. We keep the criteria intentionally broad because we want you to be able to whole-heartedly pursue an internship that aligns with your passions and goals.

Submit an internship for approval.

Read requirements and submit your internship final paper.

Note: Prior approval for any kind of off-campus employment is a requirement of the F-1 student visa regulations.  International students in F-1 status who pursue the Entrepreneurial Studies Certificate are encouraged to reach out to International Student and Scholar Services as soon as possible to discuss options for requesting off-campus employment authorization.  If off-campus employment authorization is not possible for fulfilling this internship requirement, other options are available that will work towards the successful completion of the requirements of the Certificate.

Capstone Exam

certificate capstone examAll students must pass a final capstone exam in entrepreneurship after all Certificate requirements are met and before your graduate. Students will receive information about submitting their final capstone a month before graduation. If you would like to learn more, please email our Program Coordinator.