Annual Report 2019-2020
Entrepreneurship Programs
Students gain experience in operating a successful business at the Saxbys at Bowie State, an exclusively student-run cafe.
Entrepreneurship Focus Creates Expanded Learning Opportunities
Nestled between Washington, DC’s high-growth tech atmosphere and the thriving cybersecurity and development in Baltimore—two cities on Inc.’s “50 Best Places in America for Starting a Business”—Bowie State University is flourishing inside a corridor of enterprise. The university is one of the first HBCUs to create an accelerated entrepreneurial program, an outgrowth of the administration’s strategic priority to prepare students for careers at existing companies and build the fundamentals to launch their own.
“We're creating an entrepreneurial culture across campus so every student will have it. It's called ‘intrapreneurship,’ where they're learning to be creative, agile, innovative thinkers. More corporations are hiring students with that mindset,” said Johnetta Hardy, executive director of Entrepreneurship Academy, a university-wide initiative that provides resources, mentorship and coaching. “Our students can help make an organization more successful. And if they happen to start a business, they're armed with the information they need.”
Saxbys took my career wants to the next level. ... Now I have higher confidence, knowing that my capability isn't just doing entry-level, remedial tasks at work.
- Devin Gallion, business administration major
Meeting the institutional goal of exposing each Bowie State student to at least one experiential learning opportunity, Hardy and her staff supported a landmark partnership with Saxbys, a social impact coffee company with 30 U.S. locations. Nearly 25 percent of Saxbys cafés are based on college campuses and when the Bowie State location opened in fall 2019, it became BSU’s first exclusively student-run business and the first Saxbys at an HBCU. After several rounds of interviews and 10 weeks of training, Devin Gallion was hired as its inaugural Student CEO.
Saxbys CEO Nick Bayer (left) celebrates the partnership with Bowie State with the inaugural student CEO Devin Gallion (right) for the Saxbys at Bowie State.
“Saxbys took my career wants to the next level. I know how to procure food, compare vendors for the best product, submit invoices and schedule a 45-person team. They put me in complete control of operations to make me feel like I can do it elsewhere. Now I have higher confidence, knowing that my capability isn't just doing entry-level, remedial tasks at work,” said Gallion, a business administration major planning a career in the food and hospitality industry and possibly his own restaurant, thanks largely to his leadership experience at the Saxbys at Bowie State.
To support early-stage ventures, the Entrepreneurship Academy guides startups from ideation to creation. A $50,000 National Science Foundation grant is funding the Bowie State University Innovation Corps (I-Corps) program to help faculty-student collaborators convert their technology ideas into market-ready businesses. Doctoral student Michael Abobor ('04) won second place at the 3rd annual African Diaspora Entrepreneurship Summit for his pitch of Xtended Yus Markers, an invention he honed in the Summer Launch Program for student innovators.Last year, Maryland ranked first in per-capita business ownership for women and people of color, and Bowie State’s emphasis on entrepreneurship is positioning students to capitalize on that environment of success. The new Entrepreneurship Living Learning Community, a $42-million hybrid residence hall and small business hub scheduled for completion in July 2021, will provide mixed-use space for classes, product-making and retail sales to help students and the local community grow scalable startups.
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