University teaches studes to become their own boss

CEBU, Philippines - Learning entrepreneurship in school can be fun. But the learning environment has to be receptive and supportive to push students get on their feet and become business managers at their early age.

Some of today's college students are aiming to become their own boss at the school level.

For instance, entrepreneurship learners at the University of San Carlos said their parents and educators have helped them create an enterprise.

Elijah Ross Tiu, marketing and operations manager of Wraps, a student-run food business, said one great challenge for student entrepreneurs is pursuing commercial success after graduation.

“That’s our crossroad in our life,” said 20-year-old Tiu, sharing Wraps, composed of seven college students, initially planned to open a store in a mall in the future to prove how strong the brand is. He said they invested around P140,000 to start the enterprise which offers healthy fast food.

Learning process

Dr. Angelita Ramona Valles, professor at the university’s School of Business and Economics, explained these students have gone through a learning process from discovering their entrepreneurial abilities to the actual practice of introducing their products to the market. Creating a business is part of the school’s curriculum.

“This is not just an academic program,” Valles, a practicing entrepreneur, told The FREEMAN. “We told them that they should have an investment.”

She though claimed not all of entrepreneurship students do business after graduation because several of them may look first for other employment opportunities before considering the idea of managing an enterprise.

“We are encouraging them to continue, our challenge is really giving them the knowledge and sustaining them,” she said. She, however, noted some of what used to be as just student businesses in their university have now operated commercially.

Sophomores Aiyk Marie Corro and Florianne Dolauta, who joined the school’s Entrepreneurship Fair at Ayala Center Cebu over the weekend, eagerly said they are motivated to learn about running their own company in the future.

Sam Cruz, 19-year-old finance manager of sanitizer maker Purifico, one of the fair’s 13 business exhibitors, shared her seven group members are still unsure if they would continue their venture after finishing the course. “But we have learn to be passionate with this experience,” she said.

Tiu also shared this lesson from his experience: “What I've learned the most is you really need to have trust with your business partners [with my classmates]. That’s one thing to keep you motivated. As you work on your product, you need to be loyal to that idea and work hard on it.”

In a previous interview, Filipino-Cebuano Business Club Inc president Rey Calooy said universities are creating only a few young entrepreneurs because most want to become employees.

Filipino youngsters, whose orientation is to become workers, must be inspired to turn their creative ideas into money-making enterprises which eventually create jobs in the community, the Cebuano businessman stressed.

He pointed out it is better to start while young. He advised: “We should aim high, go extra miles, think global and explore more opportunities in terms of creating more business. So, we can help the country’s economic growth.”  (FREEMAN)