Gonzaga University professor Todd Finkle describes entrepreneurship as a field of study that’s constantly changing, evolving to focus on the ideas and passions of its students. The concentration in entrepreneurship and innovation, which he created in 2011, has grown over the years to accommodate changes in technology, teaching, and learning styles in this fast-paced field of study. 

“I’ve found that entrepreneurial students are some of the most driven, motivated people you will ever meet,” says Finkle. “I often talk to my classes about needing passion for your work, the desire to innovate, and a hunger to keep learning and doing.”

Finkle says the curriculum he created for the concentration in entrepreneurship and innovation at Gonzaga is benchmarked off of programs at Stanford University, University of California Berkeley, Indiana University, University of Minnesota, and University of Southern California. 

“I have worked very closely with these schools in the creation and innovation of cutting-edge curriculum,” he says. “The challenge is meeting the needs of the students and faculty, and fitting the course to the culture.” 

Originally from Nebraska, Finkle earned his doctor of philosophy in business administration from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1993. He also holds a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and a bachelor’s degree in life science from Nebraska.

When Finkle came to Gonzaga in 2010, the university offered only two entrepreneur classes, social entrepreneurship and creating new ventures, also known as business planning. Finkle says these classes attracted about 60 students a year. 

By 2011, Finkle had created the curriculum for the university’s major in entrepreneurship and innovation, which is open to all business majors. In 2013, he created a minor in the same field, which is open to all university students.   

“Since I came, we have had over 800 students take entrepreneurship classes, with over 100 getting a degree in entrepreneurship and innovation,” says Finkle. “We continue to grow and need to hire another faculty member to keep up with demand.”

One of the first courses Finkle created was called creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship, a course that now serves as the introduction to the program. 

Finkle typically teaches five courses a year, as well as workshops on ideation, design thinking, prototyping, and lean startups. He says one of the most popular courses he teaches right now is a class called technology entrepreneurship, which focuses on tech startups, platforms, websites, and applications. 

“Entrepreneurship is very popular and gives students an edge in the workplace, as they have a skill set that other students do not have,” says Finkle. 

He created a new course last spring called startup accelerator, in which students work to create their own startup during the semester. In the spring, he is also in charge of the annual Pigott Entrepreneurial Lecture Series.

“Last spring, eight students worked together with our law school legal clinic and our advisory board in the creation of a social startup,” says Finkle. “We currently have eight students in our class this semester, who are working on different startups. It is a wonderful opportunity for students to learn.”

Finkle and fellow professor Daniel Stewart also host the university’s Entrepreneurship Week April 11-15. 

This year’s entrepreneurship week events will include a student trade show, panel discussions of entrepreneurship, tours of the university’s student-run New Venture Lab, announcement of winners of a business plan competition, and lectures from Antonio Anselmo, CEO of ChemBioPower, and John Jack, a partner at Andreessen Horowitz, a $4 billion venture capital firm based in Menlo Park, Calif. 

Stewart is the director of Gonzaga’s Hogan Entrepreneurial Leadership Program, a kind of honors program for students interested in entrepreneurial leadership. Stewart received both his doctorate and master’s degrees from Stanford University and is also the owner of Dardan Enterprises Inc., a general contracting company located in Post Falls.

“The entrepreneurship and innovation major is about starting business from the ground up, while our program is more about preparing the student to both lead change as well as implement it,” says Stewart. 

The program is a three-year undergraduate minor that teaches students the concepts and practices of creating new enterprises in the private and public sectors. It’s a highly competitive program, Stewart says, admitting only 25 students per year. 

The program is available to freshmen who demonstrate high academic potential, achievement, and proven leadership, creativity, and service skills. Students complete the entrepreneurial leadership minor in conjunction with their chosen major in any academic field.

The Hogan program also includes the previously mentioned New Venture Lab, which works with local entrepreneurs to help develop new products and business ventures. 

Interested community entrepreneurs apply, and if selected, are then paired with a student project manager. Project managers are assigned a team of four to five students who work with the entrepreneur to create a project or service they will complete during an eight-week program. 

Students who participate come from varied academic backgrounds, and services through the New Venture Lab can include business plans, market research and other tools to develop products and businesses. Each project gives students real experience working with both startups and seasoned entrepreneurs and teaches them business skills.

Students in the Hogan program also are invited to participate in the annual Milgard Invitational Case Competition on Social Responsibility, in Tacoma. The invitation-only contest enables undergraduate students to explore issues of corporate sustainability and citizenship that affect companies. Student teams spend 72 hours researching and developing their solution and presentations, which then are presented to panels of judges. This year’s Gonzaga student participants won first place, with each team member receiving a $1,000 cash award.

Stewart says the exciting thing about working with entrepreneurial students is seeing how interested and empowered they are.

“These students are high achievers who have the energy and desire, all they need are to be shown the resources to achieve,” he says. “They have a different mindset. Rather than choosing a typical career path, they want to create their own.” 

Stewart says because Gonzaga is a Jesuit college, its courses in entrepreneurship also incorporate the need for students to create businesses, products, or companies that also provide social service. Some student ideas turn out to be plans for nonprofit entities, as well as for-profit companies. 

“It’s important to keep that aspect of social responsibility,” says Stewart. “These entrepreneurial ideas aren’t just about creating a successful business plan that will make money; students are also asked to consider their idea’s impact on the community.” 

Finkle says teaching methods for entrepreneurship also have changed, with many similar programs at other universities focusing on teaching what is called the lean-startup model. 

“The lean startup has been a trend for the past five years or so in this field. It’s about creating a product as quickly as possible, testing it with a target market, and making modifications depending on feedback,” he says.  

Finkle has mixed thoughts on this approach, seeing it as more of a tool to give structure in early courses. 

“Ultimately, the good news is that we are developing new tools as a field. We’re not stagnant, teaching the same thing for 40 years,” he says. “We are increasingly doing more active learning, learning through doing.” 

Finkle says the active learning style gives students more opportunities to test their ideas in a real-world environment, without as much fear of failure. 

“The Hogan program has what we call an advisory board, and the entrepreneurship program has something similar that I call a mentor board,” he says. 

According to Finkle, these boards are comprised of faculty, business owners, or community members, anyone with related entrepreneurial experience and a passion to help students. Through the board, students receive advice on curriculum issues, assistance with placements and internships, access to guest speakers or field trips, feedback on presentations, and possible financing if the right project comes along.  

Finkle says entrepreneurship opportunities also are available on campus through grants in other areas of study, particularly in engineering and computer science fields.

       In 2008, Gonzaga became one of 19 engineering colleges selected for participation in the Kern Entrepreneurship Education Network, which seeks to encourage students to develop an entrepreneurial mindset and skills. Gonzaga has received two grants from a foundation created through the network, the most recent of which was a $651,000 grant in 2013 for engineering and computer science students, faculty and staff.

“We have been exposing younger students, both those in the entrepreneurial and innovation program and those in engineering and computer science programs, to the entrepreneurial mindset through workshops, with the goal of preparing them for their senior design class,” says Finkle. 

Senior design is a required year-long class that all engineering and computer science students have to take their senior year.  While historically the class has been about working with companies from industry only, this approach enables students to develop entrepreneurial plans and products for companies, as well as to create ventures for themselves. 

Finkle says this approach is working to bridge the gap between engineering and entrepreneurship. 

“I currently have three engineering and computer science students getting a minor in entrepreneurship and innovation. I know all of them want to be entrepreneurs,” he says.