L. William Crotty Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership

The L. William Crotty Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership at the University of Dayton provides a distinctive approach to university entrepreneurship education. This multidisciplinary entrepreneurship major and program, designed to meet the educational needs of future entrepreneurs, gives students the opportunity to start actual micro-businesses, offers exposure to rapid growth companies and regular contact with successful entrepreneurs, and leverages the entrepreneurial process for the common good.

With many extracurricular offerings considered among the best in America, our students have opportunities for business consulting, micro-lending, angel investing, internships, mentorship, and student competitions in commercial real estate and business plans. Regularly scheduled luncheons with highly respected entrepreneurs from the greater Miami Valley area add more experiential learning to our academic program. We are consistently ranked by the Princeton Review as one of the best entrepreneurship programs in the nation, from a 2,000 program examination, adding testimony to the character and rigor of our entrepreneurship program.

In his distinguished career, entrepreneur and benefactor Bill Crotty has seen what can happen "when remarkable individuals with courage and conviction start new companies. New ideas and new budding entrepreneurs, educated at the University of Dayton's entrepreneurship program, will positively change the patterns of life." In alignment with UD’s commitment to the common good, we pursue entrepreneurship for the common good that is rooted in the community and committed to social justice where students don’t just watch from the sidelines but are immersed in the process. An institutional wide commitment to leveraging entrepreneurship for the common good can be seen in the university’s 10-year, $12 million investment to create a hub for the region's startup ecosystem, where entrepreneurs, investors, collaborators and students work together and support each other to move ideas forward.

This commitment is also evident in the creation of the Greater West Dayton Incubator, a university funded community initiative to support women and entrepreneurs-of-color through a neighborhood space that provides a pathway into a broader network of resources to support their startups and ongoing ventures. In The Crotty Center, we don’t just teach students how to create profitable ventures, we teach them how to leverage those skills to help build community and create positive change where their support is needed most.