University of Dayton
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, and offers exposure to rapid growth companies and regular contact with successful entrepreneurs.

The Crotty Advisory Council, comprised of entrepreneurs and economic development leaders, reviews our entrepreneurship curriculum and extracurricular activities and often supplements classroom instruction, allowing entrepreneurship students to learn from a combination of the best academic thought and successful business practice.  

Finally, with our many extracurricular offerings considered among the best in the America, our students have opportunities for business consulting, internships, mentorships, student competitions in commercial real estate & business plans and regularly scheduled luncheons with highly regarded entrepreneurs from the greater Miami Valley area.  Our recent ranking by the Princeton Review & Entrepreneur Magazine naming the University of Dayton as the 5th best entrepreneurship program in America, from a 900 program examination, adds testimony to the character and rigor of our entrepreneurship program.

Ranked "#5  best undergraduate entrepreneurship program in America"  by The Princeton Review & Entrepreneur Magazine

Working in teams of five students under the direction of successful former entrepreneurs, sophomore entrepreneurship majors at the University of Dayton develop ideas and create micro-companies with the Crotty Entrepreneurship Center providing over $30,000 in venture capital to the year long student run businesses. "They may establish a tutoring business, produce calendars, artistic posters or even a website design company," explains Robert Chelle, Founding Director of the Crotty Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership.