Aspiring entrepreneurs at Johnson C. Smith University now have a dedicated space to help fuel their business careers.
JCSU opened an eHub last week that will equip the school's PNC Fellows — a rotating cohort of student entrepreneurs — with the technology, seed funding and mentorship needed to help scale their maturing or existing businesses. The incubator space is located on the first floor of the James B. Duke Memorial Library on campus.
The eHub was made possible through a $375,000, multiyear grant from the PNC Foundation, a nonprofit arm of PNC Financial Services Group Inc. (NYSE: PNC). That funding was announced in February 2022 as part of the PNC North Carolina historically Black colleges and universities initiative. Five schools in the state, including JCSU, were awarded more than $2 million in grant funding.
PNC's initiative for HBCUs was created to build resources for young entrepreneurs, so they can grow and sustain their businesses.
“The support from PNC is a testament to the company’s commitment to empowering HBCUs to bridge the significant equity gaps in entrepreneurship among African Americans,” Alphonso O. Ogbeuhi, dean of the college of business and professional studies at JCSU, said in a news release.
Ogbeuhi expects the eHub to provide learning opportunities around market research, business plan development, financial analysis and business leadership.
Lucinda Blue — chair of the department of business and public leadership at JCSU, as well as head of the eHub — told CBJ in a recent interview that the school's business department noticed several student entrepreneurs with no designated place to work. JCSU wanted to ensure the emerging business owners could continue to add value to their dreams and aspirations, she added.
"So it's important for us as a university to help them with that career and also make sure that it is sustainable," Blue said. "We found the space, and we also realized that we needed to upfit the space to make sure they could go in and work in private or have someone come in and talk to them about funding, about credit scores and everything we need to know about entrepreneurship."
She said the grant money from PNC will not only be used to maintain the incubator space; some of it will be awarded to the students to help their businesses excel. The eHub will also support other businesses in Charlotte's Historic West End, where JCSU is located, Blue noted.
She hopes the eHub will draw in more students who may be interested in enrolling at JCSU and minoring in entrepreneurship. The space could result in a entrepreneurship major program being added to the school's business department, Blue said.
"I have a lot of plans for this," she said. "Now, will it mature? I don't know, but I'm ready to move forward."
The 2023 PNC Fellows — selected during what is planned to be an annual pitch event, the first of which was held during the eHub grand opening — are Justin Finley, Eryn Glover, Jayden Petrus and Taylor Proffett-Brooks. The incubator space is currently open during JCSU's library hours and will be available on weekends and evenings in the summer.
“Our sincere hope is that the eHub, powered by PNC, will not only provide student-entrepreneurs with a physical place to work, but that this resource will help inspire our region’s future business leaders and innovators,” said Weston Andress, PNC regional president for the western Carolinas. “All of us at PNC look forward to learning about the ideas and opportunities that will take shape here.”
