Rowan College’s William G. Rohrer School of Enterprise (RCB) follows a mannequin of trade for the larger good, identical to its namesake did.
Based in 1972 and celebrating its 50th anniversary all through the 2022-23 faculty 12 months, the Division of Administrative Research grew to become the College of Enterprise in 1986 and was renamed in 2005 for Rohrer, a neighborhood banker and philanthropist devoted to serving to South Jersey companies develop.
Like lots of the companies that Rohrer helped finance, the school named for him grew tremendously whereas by no means shedding a deal with service, neighborhood and the entrepreneurial spirit.
“Entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial considering are key to our mission,” stated Dr. Sue Lehrman, dean of the RCB since 2015, who famous that the College’s entrepreneurial, get-it-done angle attracts hundreds of scholars annually.
The Princeton Evaluation and Entrepreneur journal in 2021 named the school’s undergraduate entrepreneurship program a High 50 within the U.S., recognition of a great fostered by College President Ali A. Houshmand and inspired throughout all of Rowan’s colleges and schools.
Lehrman believes that recognition affirmed that entrepreneurship, as taught within the RCB and inspired throughout campus, means following a ardour to do nice issues.
“It’s about considering and appearing in a daring, revolutionary manner,” she stated. “Following a mannequin set by Mr. Rohrer and really a lot inspired by Dr. Houshmand, we assist college students and neighborhood members to pursue massive concepts, and infrequently meaning beginning a enterprise.”
RCB at a look
Serving to to outline the school at 50 are 4 Facilities of Excellence and a variety of educational levels, from certificates and baccalaureate packages by means of an revolutionary and customizable MBA.
The faculty options:
- Facilities of Excellence in Experiential Studying, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Skilled Improvement, and Accountable Management;
- 12 advisory councils of regional leaders who assist form curricula and supply mentorship, internships and, usually, job alternatives for graduates;
- Roughly 2,000 undergraduates and practically 300 graduate college students;
- Greater than 60 full-time college and a devoted corps of adjunct instructors;
- AACSB and ABET accreditation, considered one of just some American enterprise colleges to carry each.
Enterprise for the larger good
Whereas enterprise colleges by definition practice college students to show a revenue, Lehrman stated the RCB additionally locations an ideal emphasis on ways in which enterprise can profit humanity. For instance, highschool college students on this summer season’s Suppose Like an Entrepreneur academy utilized an entrepreneurial lens to addressing United Nations world sustainability targets like eliminating poverty and making certain clear ingesting water.
“We speak about individuals, planet, revenue,” Lehrman stated. “Traditionally, enterprise colleges had been targeted on revenue alone however we take a look at the triple backside line, which we consult with as ‘the three Ps.’”
The aim-driven theme carries from the dean’s workplace to the 4 school facilities to its lecture rooms and affiliations.
From an MBA focus in sustainable enterprise practices to “Speed up South Jersey,” a program launching this 12 months to assist inner-city entrepreneurs, to a long-running initiative through which enterprise college students assist neighborhood residents put together their taxes without spending a dime, Lehrman stated societal impression is at all times a part of the lesson.
“We’re coaching enterprise individuals dedicated to the next goal,” she stated.
Holy Grounds
Stephen Kozachyn, government director of Exterior Affairs for the RCB who heads its Middle for Experiential Studying, stated a mission this previous spring with St. John of God Neighborhood Companies in Westville exemplifies the school’s dedication to enterprise for the larger good.
In that mission, 68 RCB college students developed a advertising and marketing plan, studied provide chain and logistics, and offered human sources steerage for Holy Grounds, a line of espresso that St. John of God shoppers with particular wants hope to quickly promote in stores.
“The Holy Grounds espresso mission is an ideal instance of enterprise for the widespread good,” Kozachyn stated. “St. John of God shoppers roast, bundle and distribute espresso at yard gross sales, on-line and at some occasions. It’s not but in supermarkets however we hope to assist get it there quickly.”
A legacy of accountable leaders
Rowan College’s 2022 Distinguished Alumnus of the Yr, RCB graduate Joseph Cosgrove ’00, stated classes from his undergraduate research helped set a tone for the best way he conducts enterprise and has pursued his profession.
As CEO of Pentec Well being, a Glen Mills, Pa., firm, Cosgrove heads a corporation that’s turn out to be a pacesetter in patient-specific drugs at dialysis facilities and in-home settings.
Along with his designation as Rowan’s Distinguished Alumnus of the Yr, Cosgrove was named the Marcum Innovator of the Yr in 2016, is a Philly 100 CEO Corridor of Fame Society inductee, and acquired the Nationwide Kidney Basis Management in Enterprise award and the Ernst & Younger Entrepreneur of the Yr award.
All of which, he stated, wouldn’t have been potential had he not discovered to place prospects – in his case sufferers – first.
“There’s no larger pleasure than figuring out that the merchandise we make and the companies we offer are contributing to a larger high quality of care,” he stated.
One of many school’s longest serving college members, Professor of Administration and former dean Dr. Robert Fleming, stated the idea of neighborhood service, typically referred to in enterprise as “servant management,” has been a core instructing precept inside the RCB for many years.
Fleming, who can be a nationally identified skilled on fireplace security and emergency administration, stated his personal expertise, together with service with a volunteer fireplace firm beginning in 1972, at all times informs his classes.
“We’ve individuals instructing our courses who don’t merely learn a script about servant management,” Fleming stated. “They’ve lived it. And when you might have individuals who have really finished it, and who share these experiences with college students, it enhances the popularity of not simply the School of Enterprise however of Rowan College.”
A part of Mr. Rohrer’s legacy
The William G. Rohrer Charitable Basis has given practically $20 million to the College since 1995, together with greater than $17 million to the School of Enterprise.
Of that, the Basis donated $10 million to assist RCB college students in 2005, then the most important reward to the College since Henry Rowan’s $100 million. In 1999, the Basis awarded Rowan $1 million to fund enterprise scholarships and, in 1995, an extra $1 million to ascertain the William G. Rohrer Professorial Chair inside the RCB. (In 2000, the Campbell household of Salem additionally donated $1 million to fund the John B. Campbell Professorial Chair within the School of Enterprise, which was named for the late president and chairman of the board of administrators of Mannington Mills.) The Basis in 2017 pledged $5 million to ascertain the William G. Rohrer School of Enterprise Honors scholarship program.
Mr. Rohrer, the primary mayor of Haddon Township (a place he held, in all, for 36 years), posthumously left thousands and thousands of {dollars} to organizations round South Jersey together with funding for the William G. Rohrer Memorial Library in Haddon Township, the Bancroft College in Haddonfield, the Camden County Leukemia Society, the American Diabetes Affiliation and the Arthritis Basis.
Constructing on success
The RCB actually constructed on its decades-long file of success with the opening in 2017 of Enterprise Corridor, a gleaming glass and brick edifice on the northern aspect of Rowan’s Glassboro campus designed to allow the school to double enrollment.
Fostering relationships from inside Enterprise Corridor and throughout the area, the school provides a variety {of professional} affiliations together with, inside the final 12 months, a program with Saxbys Espresso to launch a student-run coffeehouse in Enterprise Corridor; a talking engagement with Wawa CEO Chris Gheysens; and the partnership with St. John of God Neighborhood Companies.
As a part of the school’s 50th anniversary celebration, the RCB will outfit 50 first-year college students with a enterprise wardrobe to attend particular occasions, job gala’s and interviews, and it’ll host a sequence of particular occasions to construct on its first half-century of success. They embody:
In assist of the RCB’s 50th, the school can be conducting a fundraising drive through which donors might make a $50 or different reward to assist the school stay robust and vibrant for the subsequent 50 years.
“We wished to make the 50th Anniversary significant to our college students, college, alumni, donors and the neighborhood,” Dean Lehrman stated. “As a part of that, we’re internet hosting occasions that talk to our mission.”
