November, 16, 2021 - The Cyvia and Melvyn Wolff Center for Entrepreneurship in the C. T. Bauer College of Business at the University of Houston has been named the No. 1 undergraduate entrepreneurship program in the United States for the third consecutive year.
The program has ranked No. 1 in the annual list compiled by The Princeton Review and published in Entrepreneur magazine a total of six times, and it has ranked in the Top 10 since 2007. This is the first time the program is ranked No. 1 three years in a row.
“The Wolff Center is the No. 1 program in the nation because it changes students’ lives, and that is what makes the honor so special,” said Paula Myrick Short, UH senior vice president for academic affairs and provost. “There is no other program in the nation that creates such an immersive and experiential environment where students learn from world-renowned faculty and mentors in an entrepreneurial city primed to launch the next generation of companies.”
Wolff Center student Seemona Ahmed, Chris Tansil and Camila Ferrero
Wolff Center student Seemona Ahmed, Chris Tansil and Camila Ferrero
As a forward-looking business school with ‘The Future is Our Business’ as its mantra, Paul A. Pavlou, C. T. Bauer College of Business dean and Cullen Distinguished Chair Professor said entrepreneurship is one of the disciplines that will carry the rapidly changing business world forward.
“This consecutive number one national ranking is a recognition that the Bauer College is the predominant force in entrepreneurship education. We need more entrepreneurial spirit in all of our students, and the Wolff Center is critical for instilling in them the ability to be innovative and creative as they enter a business world in transition and facing an unprecedented future,” said Pavlou.
Wolff Center Executive Director Dave Cook with students outside Melcher Hall.
Wolff Center Executive Director Dave Cook with students outside Melcher Hall.
“This consecutive Number 1 national ranking is a recognition that the Bauer College is the predominant force in entrepreneurship education."
The Wolff Center competitive cohort program currently accepts between 30 and 40 students each year. Notably, more than 1,400 businesses have been started over the past decade by Wolff Center students who must complete a rigorous application process before being assigned an experienced mentor. Those relationships are key to the program’s success, according to Wolff Center Executive Director Dave Cook.
“Entrepreneurship at the University of Houston enables students to not just study the subject but to become entrepreneurs,” said Cook. “The education is driven by world class instructors, talented mentors and passionate classmates who intend to make a difference in the world.”
- Julie Bonnin
“Even before I started mentoring, I always said the Wolff Center was the best kept secret in Houston.”
-Dianne Appolito, UH alumnus and Wolff Center mentor
"The Mentor"
For more than 35 years, UH alumna and licensed therapist Dianne Appolito has helped people navigate their mental health struggles through compassionate behavioral health care. She co-founded Stone Creek Psychotherapy and Wellness Center in 2003, ranked among the “Cougar 100” as one of the most successful Cougar-owned or operated companies.
Now with decades of business experience under her belt and having faced “one hurdle after another” through the years, Appolito volunteers as a mentor for students at the Wolff Center. So, what’s her most important piece of advice?
“Patience,” she said without hesitation. “They’re the best of the best, wired to be entrepreneurs, but they can be really hard on themselves sometimes for not accomplishing their goals right away. There needs to be balance, and they’ll get there.”
“Everybody in this program— every professor and staff member— has started a business.
All Wolff Center students are matched with a successful business professional or entrepreneur mentor from the city of Houston’s innovation ecosystem. Over the last year, students had access to more than 500 mentors with a variety of expertise. In many cases, the mentoring relationship continues years after graduation.
“Our mentors recognize they didn’t get to where they are all by themselves. They had help along the way,” said Cook. “It’s incredible to take a lifetime of what you’ve learned and be able to transform that into wisdom to pass on to the next generation.”
Before ascending to his current leadership role, Cook himself started as a Wolff Center mentor nearly two decades ago. A self-described “serial entrepreneur,” he worked for Fortune 500 companies and started various companies in the supermarket industry.
“Everybody in this program— every professor and staff member— has started a business. It’s not just ‘Let me tell you what to do.’ It is driven by people who have been there and done that.”
As for Appolito, she’s been there and is still doing it, and embraces the opportunity to share the secret to her success with her mentees.
“No matter how bad it gets, it’s going to be okay,” she said before applauding the Wolf Center’s ascension to national prominence. “Even before I started mentoring, I always said it was the best kept secret in Houston. Thank goodness it’s not a secret anymore.”
- Chris Stipes
Wolff Center mentor Dianne Appolito with her former mentee, Dominic Guerra.
Wolff Center mentor Dianne Appolito with her former mentee, Dominic Guerra.
Dave Cook, executive director of the Wolff Center for Entrepreneurship
Dave Cook, executive director of the Wolff Center for Entrepreneurship
"The Dream Chaser"
Nicholas John has been chasing his dreams of becoming a serial entrepreneur since middle school.
“Right now, I have over 100 dreams that I’ve written down and have completed about 20 of them, though I keep adding more to the list.”
The savvy UH senior and Wolff Center student has already turned some of those aspirations into reality. At just 22, John is running his third business, Reliable Garage Systems (RGS), a company that specializes in garage door repair and installation. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Houston native co-founded For Health Labs, which supplies personal protection equipment to hospitals and other medical facilities across the country.
“I represent the next generation of entrepreneurs who will change the world."
Nick John founded Reliable Garage Systems in Jan. 2021.
Nick John founded Reliable Garage Systems in Jan. 2021.
In between owning RGS and attending school, John still finds time to work for the family business, Wheatstone Insurance, as an employee benefits sales specialist. He intends to soak up all he can about the industry, so he can one day lead the company.
“I always had the drive to create and seize opportunities,” said John, who inherited his passion for entrepreneurship from his father. As a young teen, John made money buying shoes then re-selling them for a profit. He then jumped on the hoverboard hype – buying and selling those for three-times the price.
There is no stopping this young visionary who continues to “make stuff happen.” He has his eyes on the ultimate prize – making sure his loved ones are financially secure. He also plans to pay it forward by sharing his knowledge with future Coogs who follow in his footsteps.
“I represent the next generation of entrepreneurs who will change the world. The Wolff Center for Entrepreneurship truly changed my life.”
- Sara Tubbs
“The Future Food Industry Star”
Terrynisha Dumas also heard the calling early: Her life would revolve around food, professionally and personally. She comes from a family legacy of independent workers and a paternal grandmother who stirs up a legendary pot of Louisiana gumbo.
While attending culinary school in Florida, Dumas grew to realize business realities could dim the first of her two ultimate entrepreneurial goals – a signature line of specialty sauces. She would need a solid business foundation to support her creative dreams.
To enlighten her path, Dumas relocated to Houston to enroll in the Wolff Center for Entrepreneurship. “It’s hands-on, and that’s how I learn best,” she said.
Wolff Center students Janam Bhatt, Terrynisha Dumas and Nick John.
Wolff Center students Janam Bhatt, Terrynisha Dumas and Nick John.
Her story actually begins much earlier with the small businesses of her father, an electrical engineer, and grandfather, a welder. (Years later, her mother would start a business, too, in the finance industry). In their homes in New Orleans, a very young girl listened to elders blend family and business while her own dreams were forming amid the aroma of Grandma Gwennie’s bubbling gumbo.
Then came the storm. Hurricane Katrina ravaged their home in 2005. Dumas was just 6-years old. In circumstances that broke many, the family began anew in Dallas and the focus on her future sharpened — she had a clear view of goals and a willingness to work from the bottom up.
“We’re doing well now, but I know we can have a better life with education, especially financial education,” she said. That conviction feeds Dumas’ other big goal for her entrepreneurial journey: generational wealth. The kind of prosperity that stirs together the vision, work and success of many.
Dumas is stepping up to that legacy. Later this month, Dumas will begin scouting a location in Dallas to open a food truck court. She’s not working her kitchen magic yet, but this real estate venture will serve up her food empire’s first course following her graduation from the Wolff Center next Spring.
- Sara Strong
UH alum Esmeralda Badillo
UH alum Esmeralda Badillo
“The Alumnus”
Esmeralda Badillo (B.B.A. ’20) was a 21-year-old fledging entrepreneur who found herself graduating at the height at of the coronavirus frenzy. The Wolff Center alumna was keen enough to spot an opportunity and took a shot at opening an environmental cleaning service aimed directly at sterilizing environments during the highly contagious COVID-19 outbreak.
It was a confusing time, to be sure. That’s why Badillo named her company Faro Disinfecting Services. In Spanish, faro means lighthouse. “Just as a lighthouse guides you to safety, our business was created to do just that,” said Badillo, who convinced her father and a colleague of his to join her in the environmental adventure.
One thing that was not confusing to Badillo were the lessons learned at the Wolff Center that gave her confidence to not only open a business, but to lead the way for her two elder partners.
“Going through the Wolff Center I learned not only how to succeed, but also how to be okay with failure, because it is a reality in life” said Badillo. “They pushed us to work through the fear of failure, giving me the keys to success and the coping strategies for when success wasn’t going to happen.”
So far, she’s only needed the keys, because Faro Disinfecting Services is succeeding and already expanding. While the company began cleaning for COVID-19, it quickly grew to offer deep disinfection for bacteria and other allergens that can cause disease. Faro services homes, offices and events using the tools of their trade - powerful air purifiers with technology developed by NASA.
In another sign of growth, Faro began renting the equipment and still does, but they have also expanded into sales. Throughout it all, Badillo holds tightly to the Wolff Center lesson of finding your own personal purpose.
“Once you have that you can apply it to any career you want,” said Badillo, who admitted hers is to open doors for people to help them reach their goals. She does that now with every small business client.
“I don’t want to just sell to them, I want to help them connect with other businesspeople and treat them the way the Wolff Center treated me, by helping me network to reach my goals.”
- Laurie Fickman
Wolff Center student Nathan Morales.
Wolff Center student Nathan Morales.
(L to R) Wolff Center students Shiv Patel, Terrynisha Dumas, Seemona Ahmed, Sydney Riley, Michelle Nguyen, Nathan Morales, Nick John, Jonathan Kay, Teresa Garcia, Camila Ferrero, Chris Tansil, Janam Bhatt
(L to R) Wolff Center students Shiv Patel, Terrynisha Dumas, Seemona Ahmed, Sydney Riley, Michelle Nguyen, Nathan Morales, Nick John, Jonathan Kay, Teresa Garcia, Camila Ferrero, Chris Tansil, Janam Bhatt
Houston: Where Business Thrives
Wolff Center students reflect the city of Houston’s diverse population, invigorating Houston’s vital business sector with their fresh outlooks and ideas and expanding the city’s ever-evolving economic footprint. While many have a passion for creating small businesses, others find ways to inject an entrepreneurial mindset into positions they secure in large established companies.
“Our students know how to be innovative, whether they are launching new ventures, introducing new products, starting new processes, or even developing new ways of doing things in longstanding companies,” Pavlou said.
While the Wolff Center cohort of students is small, many more University of Houston students participate in entrepreneurship classes. More than 3,000 UH students from 91 different majors took at least one entrepreneurship course last year.
Those numbers have steadily increased over the years, and more students than ever before will soon have an opportunity to participate in Wolff Center programs. Expanded offerings will include a new master’s degree in Entrepreneurship to be launched in Spring 2022, and a new non-cohort undergraduate major in Entrepreneurship that will be offered for the first time in Fall 2022.
Best of the Best
Based on a survey the education services company conducted in summer 2021 of nearly 300 schools with entrepreneurship offerings, The Princeton Review’s ranking tallies considered more than 40 data points about the schools.
The project’s two main ranking lists name the top 50 undergraduate and top 50 graduate schools for entrepreneurship studies overall. The Princeton Review and Entrepreneur magazine published the ranking lists on their respective websites today.
"Since the mid-2000s when we first reported these ranking lists, student interest in entrepreneurship has grown dramatically, as has the commitment to entrepreneurship studies within higher education,” said Rob Franek, The Princeton Review's editor in chief. “Equally impressive have been the extraordinary contributions of the business community to these programs. We heartily recommend the fine schools that made our entrepreneurship studies ranking lists this year. Their faculties are outstanding. Their programs have robust experiential components, and their students receive awesome mentoring and networking support that will serve them for years to come.”
Entrepreneur will publish a feature on the regional lists of top schools for entrepreneurship studies in its December issue, available on newsstands Nov. 23.
Read The Princeton Review press release here.
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