 |
| Carolyn Fausnaugh, second from
left, observes the interaction with
her students and guest panelists
as they critique a business plan. |
Dr.
Carolyn Fausnaugh tackles life with an
enthusiasm and determination that would
make Oprah Winfrey seem ordinary. In
her late 40s, after years of success
as a CPA with her own firm, Fausnaugh
traded her briefcase for a backpack and
headed to the University of Georgia to
earn her Ph.D. in strategic management
with an emphasis in entrepreneurship.
“My goal when I sold my business,
and went back to school to become a college
professor, was to be academically qualified
and embedded in academia,” she
says, “but also able to communicate
with and be respected by the business
world because of my many years there.”
Through
this mix of expertise and experience,
she hoped to bridge the boundaries
between education and entrepreneurship.
And Florida
Tech, nestled on the coast of the
sunshine state, seemed like the perfect
locale
to embark on her second career.
After
years in the high stakes field of corporate
finance in Delaware,
she expected academia to be a welcome
respite
from a high stress environment.
“I had an erroneous impression
of academia,” she
laughs. “The legal stakes
are not as high, but all the
other pressures
are just as great.”
Fausnaugh
addresses her teaching with
a professional vigor characteristic
of a corporate mind. She teaches
many
courses
in entrepreneurship at both
the undergraduate and graduate level.
She also develops
her own curriculum and pounds
the pavement to combine the
local
business
community
and the classroom.
In her first
entrepreneurship course in 1995–’96,
she welcomed members of the business
community to
learn small business management
alongside undergraduate students. Today,
local
entrepreneurs still participate
in her classes as guest lecturers and
panelists
who critique students’ business
plans. (During one particular
course offered to both graduates
and undergrads,
students identify an opportunity,
and then develop a plan to
initiate that
business.)
Formatting the
class in this way requires
its due diligence
of Fausnaugh.
“As our economy changes and the
mix of students taking the course broadens,
it means there is a lot
of prep work
I have to do. I have
to really keep on my toes, and keep learning
and finding
resources about emerging
industries that have not previously existed,” she
explains.
Hand-in-hand
with this challenge is identifying
relevant experts
in the
community to
serve as panelists.
Fausnaugh is continually cultivating
a vast
network of contacts,
while also encouraging
students to sow their
own networks
through activities
such as attending local
business meetings.
From
successfully presenting their business
plans
to actually securing
funding from
contacts they’ve
met in the classroom
to ultimately launching
their ventures, Fausnaugh’s
students have achieved
a spectrum of successes,
while providing her
with the greatest
sense of satisfaction.
Quite
a feat when
you consider this
is a
woman who participated
in the
1980
White House conference
on small business,
fearlessly
embarked
on a second career
just shy of her
50th birthday and has
taught entrepreneurship
in
Australia and Singapore.
Her
commitment to lifelong learning
is as impressive
as her list
of accomplishments.
She is currently
researching the
role of intellectual
assets and intellectual
property
in our
economy.
Through
this
work, she hopes
to
expand
her knowledge
base and network, incorporate
new information
into her curriculum
and possibly
publish her findings.
When she finally
curls up at
home at the end
of a long
day,
Fausnaugh
faithfully
works on another
project—crocheting
afghans. Her
goal: to present
one to each
of her six
grandchildren,
ranging
in age from
8
to 17, when
they leave
their parents’ homes
and venture
out into the
world.
If they
have
an ounce
of their grandmother’s
entrepreneurial
spirit, they’re
sure to do
well.
Christena
Callahan | 
