Moran School of Entrepreneurship named top emerging program nationally

https://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/2019/02/06/fsus-jim-moran-school-entrepreneurship-earns-national-honor/2778355002/

Florida State University’s Jim Moran School of Entrepreneurship – which opened fall 2017 – has been recognized as the top emerging program in the country.

The school has received the Model Emerging Program Award from the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship. The association’s membership includes professors, entrepreneurship researchers and others working in the field.

It competed against Wake Forest University as one of two finalists among 18 programs that applied from around the country.

Florida State is the nation’s first stand-alone school of entrepreneurship at a public university. Drexel University, a private institution, also has a stand-alone school.

The school’s administrative offices are located downtown in the Jim Moran Building, which also houses the Jim Moran Institute for Global Entrepreneurship. The school and the building were launched with a $100-million donation from Jan Moran and The Jim Moran Foundation, the largest gift in the university's history.

Fiorito said the school currently has 500 students majoring in retail, commercial or social entrepreneurship. There are 17 full-time faculty and 10 adjunct professors or faculty associates.

The school started fall 2017 with 80 students majoring in either social or commercial entrepreneurship. In fall 2018, 100 new students were enrolled.

Also in 2018, the school added 250 retail entrepreneurship students when FSU’s Department of Retail Merchandising and Product Development moved into the Jim Moran School.

The retail entrepreneurship enrollment — which was not capped — has about 320 students, with the rest majoring in social or commercial programs.

The school graduates its first class in May.

In the meantime, another 200 students already enrolled at FSU have indicated entrepreneurship will be their declared major. This fall, the school will offer its first master’s degree, Entrepreneurship in the Textiles and Apparel Industries.