Everybody's Business
Feliciano center sparks entrepreneurial spirit
When Danielle Van Kampen enrolled in the theatre studies master’s program at Montclair State, she was already an impresario. Combining her passions for theater and community service, in 2012 she launched Per4ming heARTS, a theater company based in Ramsey, New Jersey. Her goal in founding the company, which has mounted several productions, including You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown and Godspell, was to serve her community through musical theater. For each production, the company donates a portion of the proceeds to a selected charity.
But in the process of trying to build her nascent company, Van Kampen discovered what a lot of small business owners realize: Even if you are doing what you love, you still need a killer business model.
So when, during her first year as a graduate student at Montclair State, Van Kampen heard about the Feliciano Center for Entrepreneurship’s certificate program, which comprises three highly interactive and experiential three-credit courses, she was intrigued. “I knew nothing about business,” says Van Kampen. “My undergraduate degree was in theater. I needed to know more about business so I could make my theater company successful, but I wasn’t interested in a regular business degree.”
“The rich mix of talents from so many majors makes the teams more successful, and students have said they love learning with people from all over campus.”
– Dennis Bone
In fact, Van Kampen is just the type of student that Feliciano Center Director Dennis Bone is happy to welcome into the program. No matter what a student’s area of interest, when he or she leaves college, some aspect of his or her working life will involve using the entrepreneurial skills that are essential to success. “Our courses encourage students of any major to develop an entrepreneurial mind-set, which can help them start a business but also be more innovative as employees at companies large and small,” says Bone.
Indeed, there is no typical Feliciano Center student. Students enrolled in the Entrepreneurship Certificate program come from across the campus and from every college, both at the undergraduate and graduate levels. The first cohort of students included majors in English, graphic design, anthropology, molecular biology and animation, to name just a few. “It’s important to have students with a variety of majors in our classes because a majority of the time in the classroom is spent working in small groups,” says Bone. “The rich mix of talents from so many majors makes the teams more successful, and students have said they loved learning with people from all over campus.”
The courses the center offers have little in common with traditional business courses. Casual observers wandering past a classroom in which one of the center’s courses was meeting might be forgiven for thinking they were witnessing a course in costume design. As part of a team-building exercise early in the curriculum, students working in small groups construct clothing from random materials.
Van Kampen says that it was exactly the kind of non-businesslike course for which she was looking. “Almost 100 percent of the students who have taken the course say that it’s nothing like any course they’ve ever had,” says Bone.
Director Dennis Bone and the first cohort of students at the Feliciano Center together at the Inventors Day pitch contest
All of the students enrolled in the center’s certificate program participated in a yearlong process of building a start-up that culminated in the Telebrands Inventors Day for Aspiring Entrepreneurs, sponsored by Telebrands, Inc., which has successfully marketed dozens of personal care, kitchen productivity and convenience items via infomercial. Four teams developed products and business plans and presented to a panel that included Telebrands CEO and Montclair State alumnus A.J. Khubani. Although Van Kampen’s team placed second, she says that the experience was both intense and instructive. She notes that the team had to figure out how best to work together, even though they did not always agree. She also had to extend herself well beyond her comfort zone, she says, and, as a consequence, developed new skills she now uses to promote her theater company.
“Our students experience the real-life challenges and rewards of creating a business from scratch,” says Bone. “Everything about the experience is real, from the $2,000 seed capital each team receives to the final pitch competition where two semesters of hard work is judged by pitch professionals with real money – $10,000 – as the prize for the winning team. Students grow a lot during the two semesters of our certificate program.”
Psychology major Mackenzie "Mac" Krauss dresses up during a creativity boot camp at the Feliciano Center for Entrepreneurship.
Because part of the Feliciano Center’s mission is to nurture women entrepreneurs through program development and mentorship, the center is set to host its inaugural Women Entrepreneurship Week in October. Bone says the event will feature successful women who either occupy the most powerful seats of business in the state or are entrepreneurs who have overcome tremendous challenges to launch and grow their businesses. He hopes that the event will inspire and provide information to and from women entrepreneurs. He says that the event will extend beyond the campus and include entrepreneurial meetups and other events.
For Van Kampen, the benefits of the program extend well beyond the courses and pitch competition. Eventually, she says, she hopes her theater company will expand, put on more shows, and maybe even open its own theater space that could offer acting classes and other opportunities for community theater.
Meanwhile, the 23-year-old director who also works at a gymnastics studio in Hawthorne says guiding her company through its start-up years is exciting enough. She says that her entrepreneurship studies have given her the confidence to take several leaps of faith as she grows the company. “It makes me feel like I know what I am doing, like I’m an accomplished businesswoman and entrepreneur,” she says.
For now, Van Kampen is busy planning the theater company’s next season and can summarize her main takeaway from her time at the Center for Entrepreneurship in four words: “Just go for it.”