Creating a Greater Impact in Cincinnati

The Greater Cincinnati region is a hub for higher education. With multiple universities, technical schools and diverse options available for students, there are limitless opportunities for professional growth. Cincinnati Christian University is working to make an imprint on the area with its Center of Entrepreneurship, which launched on September 24. 

The Center of Entrepreneurship is a unique opportunity for students and community members specializing in all disciplines to attend extra-curricular classes on a wide variety of subjects detailing what it means to be an entrepreneur. 

“Coupled with the center’s launch, we have designed an academic concentration for our students in entrepreneurship,” says Dr. Aaron Burgess, Dean of the School of Business at Cincinnati Christian University. “Students can dedicate 12 hours to courses within the entrepreneurship discipline.”

But for students and community members who want to learn new skills as an entrepreneur or brush up on old ones, the non-credit programming will serve to enhance both the students’ experiences and the community’s. Through the new Center of Entrepreneurship, the university hopes to expand its impact by helping people learn more intimately about entrepreneurship and incorporate what they learn into their own businesses. This, in turn, will directly affect local communities and businesses.

 “I hope it will help to create a culture of entrepreneurship in our school and in the greater campus community,” says Ron Heineman, director of the Center of Entrepreneurship at Cincinnati Christian University. “In this venture we are really focused on using our expertise and knowledge to serve entrepreneurs and business leaders in our community.  

“Small businesses and start-ups are a critical component of and major contributor to the strength of our local economy.  They breathe life into our communities and raise the quality of life for all of us. Many of our graduates have started their own businesses, and we are growing more passionate about helping others who want to do the same thing.”

Cincinnati Christian University is dedicated to educating students, preparing them for their futures and helping them to lead a Christ-centered life. Although this won’t change, the Center of Entrepreneurship will be more externally focused, with its impact affecting not just the student body at the university, but the entire city as well. 

Ultimately, the goal is for the center to help in the creation of new business and commerce in the Greater Cincinnati region, once individuals with an entrepreneurial vision have the right educational tools under their belt.

 “Our measuring stick for success, I hope, would be to point to several businesses that exist in our community and are the direct result of the center’s efforts,” says Burgess. “Our goal is to help create new and sustainable enterprises. We also aim to train strong and capable leaders of these enterprises.”

Cincinnati Christian University is located at 2700 Glenway Avenue, Cincinnati, OH 45204. You can reach them at 800.949.4228, by email at info@CCUniversity.edu or visit www.ccuniversity.edu.