![\"Meghan](\"https:\/\/news.furman.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/20190603_BusinessBootCamp_InnovationandEntrepreneurship-78.jpg\")
Meghan Probst \u201917 smiles during class at Furman’s Summer and Business Entrepreneurship Boot Camp.<\/p><\/div>\n
Meghan Probst \u201917 is a post-baccalaureate fellow with the Institute for the Advancement of Community Health<\/a> (IACH), and she signed up for the camp in an effort to maximize the potential of her undergraduate degrees.<\/p>\n \u201cI was a psychology and Spanish major here and didn\u2019t really know what I wanted to do with it,\u201d she said. \u201cI thought this was a great opportunity to broaden my skillset and look into something that I really had never taken any classes in and have no background in but something I think would be really helpful regardless of what field I go into.\u201d<\/p>\n Weeks 1 and 2 focused on business foundations, while week 3 added entrepreneurial fundamentals. Classes were taught by Furman professors, and campers also heard from 17 guest speakers from a variety of businesses in the Greenville area. There were also three field trips.<\/p>\n The camp culminated with teams of four making\u00a0business pitch plan presentations followed by a graduation.<\/p>\n Associate Professor of Philosophy Aaron Simmons<\/a> served as the Business and Entrepreneurship Boot Camp faculty director. He and Office for Innovation and Entrepreneurship Executive Director Anthony Herrera worked for months to organize the camp, with an eye on helping students in all academic disciplines maximize their individual talents in their own unique spaces.<\/p>\n \u201c(We thought), \u2018How can we create a space where the students who have different sorts of backgrounds and interests and passions and directives can now have \u2026 those skillsets so that when they enter that space they aren\u2019t intimidated by that perception that others have something they don\u2019t have, when in fact in many cases they\u2019ve got plenty that others don\u2019t have?\u2019\u201d Simmons said. \u201cThe beautiful marriage of what schools like Furman are able to offer is that we aren\u2019t saying you have to do \u2018X\u2019 in order to do \u2018Y.\u2019 No, let\u2019s figure out what needs to happen and then try to figure out what most prepares you to be able to make that happen.\u201d<\/p>\n Payton Isner ’19 listens during class at Furman’s Summer and Business Entrepreneurship Boot Camp.<\/p><\/div>\n Peyton Isner \u201919 isn\u2019t sure if he wants to start his own business. He is sure he wants to be able to be innovative no matter where he\u2019s working.<\/p>\n \u201cThe reason I signed up is I was a history student here, had originally planned to go into teaching, and decided at the last minute to go into healthcare,\u201d said Isner, who will soon begin pursuing a master\u2019s degree in healthcare administration at Cornell University. \u201cI can see (my own business) being a potential idea, but in the short term I\u2019m more interested in getting my MHA degree and then working in some kind of hospital system and maybe transform something that is already existing.\u201d<\/p>\n Classes were held in Hipp Hall 204, and of the 16 participants, 12 were either current Furman students or Furman graduates. Other students came from Wake Forest University, Davidson College, North Greenville University and Centre College, with majors ranging from biology to computer science to studio art.<\/p>\n Furman Assistant Professor of Finance John Handy taught several finance modules at the camp. He thinks the mingling of liberal arts and business is more than necessary\u00a0\u2014<\/strong> it\u2019s natural.<\/p>\n \u201cBusiness is not a liberal art. The closest you\u2019ll get at most traditional liberal arts colleges is economics, and that\u2019s my background,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you can teach business with this liberal arts flair, you\u2019ll be better than any institution that doesn\u2019t have that. I think that\u2019s what Furman really brings to the table, and I think that\u2019s what this camp really brings to the table.\u201d<\/p>\n Herrera called it \u201cbusiness and entrepreneurship with a heart.\u201d Simmons said the feedback from students validated the work that went into the camp.<\/p>\n \u201cI had two alums say to me \u2026 that despite how much they had learned at Furman, they felt like this boot camp has triggered them and gotten them excited for moving on to the next stage of their life in ways that their whole educational experience hadn\u2019t,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t think that\u2019s a failure of Furman. I think it\u2019s actually a testament to what the boot camp has been able to pull off.\u201d<\/p>\n Furman\u2019s Office for Innovation and Entrepreneurship was launched prior to the 2018-19 academic year to help emerging entrepreneurs move from idea to concept and venture to sustainable business, while making meaningful and socially responsible contributions locally and regionally. According to a new study<\/a> conducted by the university\u2019s Department of Economics, Furman’s\u00a0annual economic impact on Greenville County and the surrounding Upstate counties is more than $297 million.<\/p>\n![\"Payton](\"https:\/\/news.furman.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/20190603_BusinessBootCamp_InnovationandEntrepreneurship-69.jpg\")