Entrepreneurship Certificate Program

Entrepreneurship Certificate

Curiosity is central to entrepreneurial endeavor. With 400+ alumni entrepreneurs across various fields, there is a wealth of knowledge that resourceful students can regularly tap into. Entrepreneurs are risk-taking culture-makers driven by their curiosities to find untapped needs in the marketplace and provoke others to come alongside them—as investors, employees, suppliers, and even customers—as they build sustainable and purposeful businesses.

On this page Overview Graduate Outcomes Programs / Features Faculty Contact

Program Overview

The Entrepreneurship Certificate is uniquely designed as a value-add for students in all majors with the goal of equipping those inclined to apply their gifts by launching a for-profit business as well as those deciding to pursue intrapreneurial initiatives for existing companies in the future. The certificate also complements various careers in areas such as the arts, community and social impact, construction and contracting, education, food and beverage, manufacturing, media, health and medicine, real estate, retail and e-commerce, technology, and emerging career fields. Undoubtedly, that is a testament to our strong liberal arts core (fostering broad-based curiosity) and our strong Reformed underpinnings (making all things new).

The core class, Business Entrepreneurship, provides a rich foundation for product and service design, business model generation, brand strategy, business plan writing, pursuing investment capital, and gaining all of the necessary tools for a scalable, repeatable business venture. With a better understanding of what is required for owners and team members in all levels of business, additional coursework allows students to dive deeper and apply learning through field experience as interns with entrepreneurs, working to complete the certificate.

female student studying in front of windows

Graduate Outcomes

In the past few years, over 100 students have completed Business Entrepreneurship. Nearly every week, Covenant hosts speakers, many of whom are alumni entrepreneurs, who contribute input that is relevant to class topics. Often, the best part of these interactions is when students not only hear about others’ accomplishments and best practices, but their stories of how God has surprised and sustained them through the challenges they have encountered.

Students have the opportunity to serve as interns with these and other companies and grow in their understanding of how to exercise the tools they have learned. Professors actively assist students with preparing their resumes and applying for internships, regularly connecting students with internships in their pursued field. While it may be years before students decide to launch their own business, they are immediately able to contribute to existing businesses, as a result of their academic experience.

It is a joy to see students go from searching for 30 problems in the world around them, to seeing themselves as valuable members of community ecosystems, with the potential to create businesses that serve as one link in the global supply chain.

Leda Goodman

Assistant Director, Center of Calling & Career

Programs & Features

BUS 335 - Entrepreneurship
After identifying problems in the world around them and using Design Thinking to generate ideas, students will present an idea to the class. Students then collaborate in groups to create value propositions, a minimum viable product, and interview customers as part of customer discovery and validation. Students pick an idea to champion, exploring business model generation and value proposition design as they collaborate to write and pitch a business plan by the end of the semester.
ACC 150 - Concepts in Accounting
BUS 250 - Principles of Management
MKT 300 - Principles of Marketing

Choose 2 of the Following:
ART 220 - Introduction to Graphic Design
BUS 360 - Management Lessons from Literature and Film
CDV 300 - Living and Working in a Multicultural Context
MKT 335 - Promotion or MKT 332 - Consumer Behavior

View Requirements

Complete BUS 411 - Business Internship with a pre-approved entrepreneur. Up to 3 hours.
Enter the Seed Project competition (Provided funding is available and active.)

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