Breaking into the business world is difficult, and it’s even more challenging when you’re a student attempting to juggle coursework with college life. A new program organized by Illinois State’s Multicultural Center hopes to empower students with resources to become confident college entrepreneurs.
The Multicultural Center held a series of promotional events last fall for its new program, “Tomorrow’s Entrepreneur Institute,” a series of entrepreneurial classes designed to educate students on the ins and outs of running a business. Open to 25 students, the institute’s 90-minute class sessions will begin February 16 and run every Friday through mid-April. Applications are open until February 12.
Envisioned by Lola Tomorrow ’08—a former aide to Michelle Obama—and Dr. Christa Platt ’09, ’17, director of the Multicultural Center, the institute is partnering with the Multicultural Leadership Program, the African American Circle of Entrepreneurship, and the George R. and Martha Means Center for Entrepreneurial Studies to create a supportive network of alumni and teachers for this spring’s classes. Topics include types of businesses, funding, branding and marketing, and developing an entrepreneurial mindset. Each student will have an entrepreneur mentor to walk with them through the process.
“In a nutshell,” said Platt, “the program is entrepreneurship from a culturally relevant perspective, utilizing entrepreneurs from cultural backgrounds to help chart a path forward for students who have big ideas, big dreams, and big visions.”
To promote the institute, the Multicultural Center hosted events throughout the fall semester for students to learn business tips from invested alumni, including an in-depth interview with Tomorrow on November 2 in which she discussed details about her career and offered encouragement to aspiring entrepreneurs in the audience.
“The foundational pieces of what it takes to run a multibillion-dollar company I learned on this campus,” said Tomorrow. “For me, success is not defined by money. It’s all the other stuff. That’s the more difficult part, and those skills are developed and sharpened in college.”
The program was created in part as a response to the marginalization of minorities in entrepreneurship. According to the Pew Research Center, “businesses majority-owned by Black or African American people accounted for only 3% of all U.S. firms that were classifiable by the race and ethnicity of their owners in 2020.”
“We want to create a space where our students can crack the code to entrepreneurship by learning from diverse multi-millionaire entrepreneurs and investors who’ve cracked the code themselves,” said Platt. “What we want to do in every aspect is bring culturally relevant information to our students that centers on their cultures and their identities.”
For students, the program represents an opportunity to build toward their entrepreneurial goals.
“Honestly, I need the help. I need the knowledge, I need the network, and I need the finance,” said Kennedi Jackson, a sports psychology graduate student. “I know what I want. Now, I just need the help. I want to do something else for athletes and the entertainment industry. I don’t want to do it all just to do it all over again.”
Freshman business administration major James Austin Jr. said he’s been inspired by his family to pursue a business career.
“Because of my brother-in-law and my sister, I’ve become interested in becoming a leader,” Austin Jr. said. “Being financially free and making something out of nothing are things that drive me to do my best and work extremely hard. In entrepreneurship, you’ve got to work extremely hard to get to the top. It fits who I am.”
Platt said she wants students enrolled in the program to feel seen and uplifted by the community at the Multicultural Center. And she hopes the institute will leave a lasting impression on their hearts and minds.
“My hope is for them to walk away having learned information that centers on who they are as people and aids their confidence and excitement about their ability to take what’s in their head and their heart and to bring it to life,” said Platt. “And they have a community that surrounds them, holistically supports them, and helps them accelerate in their entrepreneurial mindset and ventures.”
