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Brian Balasia isn't too keen on typical university career fairs. "Students wearing their finest apparel stand in long lines. They might have 30 seconds to one minute to talk to the recruiter, who puts their résumé in a basket and shoots them a little stress ball. No job," describes the founder and CEO of Digerati Solutions, a Detroit-based custom software firm.

The vaunted career fair was once considered a student's first exposure to the corporate ladder; now, universities are asking, can students craft their own ladders in the career world?

CEEPing talent

Last January, Dave Munson, dean of the college of engineering at the University of Michigan (U-M) in Ann Arbor, convened a committee of U-M professors, students, business leaders, attorneys, and venture capitalists to evaluate how the college was developing student entrepreneurs and retaining them in the state after graduation. The result was the Committee on Entrepreneurial Environments and Programs for Students (CEEPS) and their report, "Empowering Entrepreneurial Students," which recommended a new emphasis on student entrepreneurship.

Dr. Thomas Zurbuchen, the new director of entrepreneurial programs in U-M 's college of engineering, explains, "We did this in almost record time with a very broad set of assessments that not only looked at the classes, but also at how alumni and local business interact with us, and how our students can find jobs in small companies in Michigan."

The pilot program, entitled MPowered starts this fall and includes, among other things, an entrepreneurship certificate; a student entrepreneurship center; an innovations fund and the Entrepreneurial Opportunities Fair, which will partner with business associations to bring about 350 small companies for on-campus interviewing. The small company fair is a first – which Zurbuchen says is a departure from the past; the college had always focused more on Fortune 200 companies.

"So we thought we'd be a little different by bringing in these small, high-tech companies that students have never heard of. That will quickly change the students' perspective on what's happening in the region," CEEPS committee member Balasia states. "Really, there are lots of jobs in Michigan for people with a college degree, especially in engineering and research."

For U-M engineering students wanting to strike out on their own, paid internships to start companies are a catalyst. Balasia, 25, started Digerati Solutions during his second year at U-M. "From our perspective, it was the easiest time of our lives to start a company because we had very little cash needs. We didn't need $70,000 salaries. We paid ourselves $12,000 a year and we were living high on the hog," he says. "The worst thing that could happen if our company went out of business was that we just went back to being students. We had all of these resources available to us – professors, lab spaces, anything you needed was right there on the campus."

Balasia's brainchild, the internship program was awarded $150,000 from the U.S. Department of Labor's Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development (WIRED) grant. The funds will cover 30 six-month internships to start in March 2008; Balasia plans to expand to 80 through matching grants from foundations. He's also working on university approval for students to receive college credit for working on the interns' company projects. "For a $5,000 grant, we now have six or seven students working together. We virally spread the idea of entrepreneurship to students in the lab group who might not otherwise have thought of it as an opportunity for themselves," he figures.

And entrepreneurship is a popular class subject these days. Gary Shields' Entrepreneurial Management course at Wayne State University (WSU), gives MBA students the semester to stir up a business plan. Shields says first-time entrepreneurs tend to select more traditional business lines, but he's all about unconventional thinking. "I tell my students: 'This pump was invented in order to move blood efficiently through your heart, but you can think about it differently. That same pump could be used in a space application to move liquid in a zero gravity environment, or to move insulin through the body. Part of my goal as their teacher is to get them to think about inventions and opportunities in different ways than they've experienced in their lives."

Entrepreneurship U.

Shields not only talks the talk, he walks the walk. He runs Detroit-based exam test-preparation firms Strategic Ventures, Inc., and completeprep.com. Along with Detroit Entrepreneurs Network president and TechTown consultant Wendy Richardson, Shields is developing a business plan for an "adventure travel" company to roll out in the Detroit area in 2008. On offer will be a slate of intellectual stimulation, culture, and entertainment activities. "I'll try to follow my own advice when I start this company up," he quips.

And WSU's environment is conducive to new company creation. "[Director of venture development] Judy Johncox is doing wonderful stuff with the faculty and scientists she's turning into entrepreneurs, with the cooperative efforts of TechTown – a number of things are bubbling," Shields says. "Almost 100 students a year take my elective course, which tells me maybe there's been a change in terms of how students and university administrators look at the whole topic of entrepreneurship."

For an unparalleled take on the university experience and some real on-the-street training, there's Bizdom U. Dan Gilbert, CEO of Livonia-based Quicken Loans, Inc. conceived and funded the $10 million Detroit-based entrepreneurial academy and this past January admitted its first class of 12. Gilbert saw new company start-ups as a way to directly inject some business life into Detroit, says Dan Izzo, training leader at the tuition-free academy housed on the WSU campus. At the one-and-a-half year program's conclusion, students submit a plan for a Detroit-based business.

The average age is 24, but students range from 19 to 36. Traditional textbooks are foregone in favor of tomes found on a CEO's bookshelf – In Search of Excellence, for instance. One-week tasks consisting of designing the business cards used at Bizdom U or analyzing an area firm are par for the course. Results are presented to a panel of guest judges – reminiscent of the NBC television show, "The Apprentice" – but, "we don’t kick anyone off," Izzo laughs.

The class company launches are set for October 2008. "I'm really looking forward to when we get out the first pair of scissors and cut the ribbon on the first business," Izzo anticipates. Successful plans will receive $25,000 to $500,000 in start-up funding, along with continued support. As the business hits certain benchmarks, he says, ownership will be transferred to the entrepreneur, with Bizdom U retaining a percentage to fund future graduates' companies. "The goal, ultimately, is for us to be a self-sustaining non-profit that creates business in Detroit," he explains.

Shields, who also teaches the Metal Shop course at Bizdom U, agrees. "That model, when done year after year of building 12, then 24, then 36 companies… as those businesses mature, they're going to be hiring people and serving as role models for more Detroiters that entrepreneurship is a viable option."

And academia is a great place to lay the groundwork for this shift in thought. "The would-be customers for universities – students – are now thinking of their careers differently, and that's driving the universities to change their curriculums," he states. "Students are demanding more choices and self-employment, starting your own business, is a wonderful option."

Tanya C. Muzumdar is a regular contibutor to metromode. Read her previous article, Summer On Ice.

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