The Spirit of Enterprise Center

A $1.1 million endowment from the Wells Fargo Foundation provides resources for programs through the Spirit of Enterprise Center in the W. P. Carey School of Business and Chicana/Chicano Studies in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. The gift supports the following programs, which serve students and businesses:

A strong partnership between ASU and the business community is at the heart of the Spirit of Enterprise Center’s vision of becoming the 21st Century leader in business education. Business leaders bring their experience to students through this gift.

Martin Alvarez, the inaugural visiting scholar, taught a new course in Hispanic business in Fall 2002. He was housed in the Spirit of Enterprise Center, an affirmation about the importance of Hispanic business to today’s Arizona business as well as to tomorrow’s leaders.

He had the opportunity to access ASU’s research, scholars and breadth of academic knowledge in an innovative collaboration. Other professors, students and businesses were able to share current, market-based relevant experiences about Hispanic business. He accessed and influenced students that Arizona companies want to hire.

Overview: The purpose of this class was to study the history of Hispanic business in metro Phoenix and Tucson from the 1960s to the present. The class looked at the impact financial and lending institutions had on a select group of Hispanic businesses.

The class also examined different types of businesses. They included: construction, retail, professional, manufacturing and the service industry. Each class a guest speaker from a different business category made a presentation and interacted with the students by answering questions.

Objective: The objective of the class was to find the commonality among the guest speakers by analyzing the following areas:

• Reason the speaker started his/her business.
  
• The single event that could have cost him/her the company (the “tipping point”).
  
• How the company is marketed.
  
• Amount of starting capital investment.
  
• Date the company was started.
  
• Age of the speaker when company was started.
  
• Number of principals in the company.
  
• Educational background as related to the business.
  
• Initial banking relationship and present banking relationship.
  
• Relationship between speaker’s family and the business.
  
• Parental influences.
  
• Religious influence.
  
• Previous jobs the speaker held.
  
• Company image.
  
• Company logo.
  
• Company’s name recognition.
  
• Development of personnel.
  
• Market niche.
  
• Dedication to his/her company.

Scholarships are an integral resource for students in Chicana/Chicano Studies and the Spirit of Enterprise Center. The awards are focused on both need and merit. About 60 percent of our students work at least 20 hours a week while they are enrolled in full-time studies. Scholarships help them pay for tuition, books and living expenses. Financial need, thus, often results in their taking more than four years to complete a traditional undergraduate degree. Other students, already accomplished and aspiring to even greater heights, seek those opportunities with the help of merit scholarships.

An additional dimension of our scholarship program is its focus on family business. Many of our students are sons and daughters of the founders. Many use scholarship assistance to concentrate more fully on the multi-faceted challenges that await them as the successor generation.

Chicana/Chicano Studies (CCS) and the Spirit of Enterprise Center will invite a national Latino policymaker to ASU to share his or her expertise in the political arena with campus and metro-Phoenix communities. Designed to expand resources for CCS students and to provide exposure for CCS bidisciplinary programs with W. P. Carey School of Business, the lectureship series also will enable the department to increase opportunities for local Hispanic leaders to discuss recent developments in Latino public policy.

Chicana/Chicano Studies sponsors an annual residential summer academy for middle and secondary school teachers interested in the state’s Mexican American legacies and issues. The workshop is designed to provide teachers with content information and pedagogical tools to incorporate the study of the Mexican American experience into their classroom curriculum.

During the two-week seminar, which includes presentations and field trips, teachers from across the state are invited to meet scholars who specialize in Chicana/Chicano Studies. Seminar topics range from literature to oral history to border landscapes, as well as the Arizona academic standards. At the end of the academy, teachers develop sample lesson plans based on the information.

Continuing education credit for teacher participants is available. Lodging, meals, and materials are provided at no cost to the teachers. Applications are invited in the winter for the upcoming summer.