Mayor Annise Parker, along with members of the UH System Board of Regents, celebrated the national recognition UH”s entrepreneurship program received last week. | Photos courtesy of Chase Pedigo
The Cyvia and Melvin Wolff Center for Entrepreneurship program in the C.T. Bauer College of Business made its way to the top of national rankings for the second time in four years.
Mayor Annise Parker, Bauer Dean Arthur Warga and many others gathered at City Hall to celebrate the recognition the program received from the Princeton Review’s annual list of programs for Entrepreneur magazine.
“We are proud to be part of the Wolff Center, the number one program of entrepreneurship in the nation,” students said in a video played at the event.
The program has produced many alumni since it was founded in 1993, many of whom expressed their personal feelings about the program.
“It’s given me a great network and has helped me launch out,” said Paul Herndon, a 2008 graduate of the program.
“When you go out there, you have to make the dream into reality.”
Herndon took what he learned from the program and started Intex Flooring, his own company. The announcement is perfect timing for him and his company, he said.
“(The announcement) is a huge wave, and we get to ride the wave of entrepreneurship,” he said.
Bill Sherrill, founder and co- chairman of the program, said that all of this is possible not because of him, but as “a result of many, many people.”
The announcement gives recognition to the work the administration does for the program, but also for the students within the program.
“It is well deserved,” said Margarita Flores, who is currently in her second semester in the Wolff program. “We are passionate about being entrepreneurs, (and) we are a family.”
The program provides tools that students can use to build successful businesses.
“In class we learn from our mistakes so that once we go out in the real world, we are prepared,” Flores said.
At the ceremony, Parker expressed why it is important to keep alumni in constant connection with the business world, and how UH does a great job on that.
“Houstonians are the future, and Bauer’s leading the way,” Parker said.
“Houston is a city of people with passion and vision,” she said. “The University of Houston is one of our crown jewels.”
Melvyn Wolff, the program’s namesake, said the recognition should be about those who continue to apply and graduate from the program.
“It is not about me, it is about the students,” said Wolff, chairman of Star Furniture. “My motivation is students and seeing what they get out of this program.”
According to a Bauer news release, The Princeton Review determined the rankings of both graduate and undergraduate programs by evaluating key criteria in the areas of academics and requirements, students and faculty, outside-the-classroom support and experiences from more than 2,000 programs that were surveyed.
