Why ‘Entrepreneurship’ Replaced ‘Economics’ as the ‘E’ in BSE Scholars

When the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business ceremonially opened the Enterprise Mobility Foundation Career Boutique and Wellness Room on Sept. 9, 2025, it marked a collaboration between Smith’s Office of Career Services (OCS) and the College Park BSE Scholars to provide, in part, students with a full service including free professional attire for interviews, job fairs and new career opportunities.

But there's more—a story behind the story. The boutique exemplifies a mission shift for BSE Scholars. Instead of the leadership-focused “Business Society and Economics,” BSE is now “Business, Society and Entrepreneurship.”

In succinct terms, it's much about “small life projects with external partners,” says BSE Scholars Director and Smith Clinical Professor of Management and Organization Oliver Schlake. “More than a year into the shift, we're building a really good portfolio of exposure to entrepreneurial thinking and entrepreneurial activities.”

For example, an Under Armor-supported project has students fabricating new products from UA's leftover fabric—mostly spandex-based. “We're turning spandex pants that are not sold into headbands or hair scrunchies, or we're taking banners—large, oversized textile banners that you see in Dick's Sporting Goods, and we're making shopping bags from them. We soon will have a dedicated store to sell our creations to the UMD community.”

Schlake adds that the shift to entrepreneurship has spurred BSE to one of the largest enrollments—86 freshmen students (half are non-business majors)—among the 13 programs comprising College Park Scholars, UMD’s two-year “living-learning program for academically talented students.”

The updated BSE homepage explains the rebranding's impetus: In recent years, the global landscape has experienced dramatic shifts, challenging long-held assumptions and ushering in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The term VUCA—Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous—aptly describes the evolving nature of today’s business world ... This dynamic environment presents unique challenges that require a new set of adaptable, resilient, and forward-thinking skills. Thriving in such a fluid context demands a strong commitment to creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurial spirit from both individuals and organizations. The [program] is specifically designed to prepare students for success in this ever-changing business landscape, regardless of their academic focus. Through a combination of cutting-edge lectures, experiential projects, immersive simulations, thought-provoking guest speakers and competitive case studies.

Inside the ‘Capstone-to-Operation’

A student-success example from the BSE shift, Schlake says, is Michelle Yuen, a business management and finance double major. Now a BSE graduate, she leads the Smith Career Boutique. Her capstone project helped lay its foundation. “One of the largest challenges that I faced during the ‘capstone-to-operation’ process was simply finding times for everyone to meet,” she says. “BSE students are incredibly involved and busy, so coordinating schedules wasn’t always easy.”

To navigate that challenge, she says she focused on breaking the project into individual responsibilities, which the scholars could complete on their own time. “That way, when we did have time to meet, it could be more efficient,” she says. “Meetings would be for check-ins, updates and problem-solving—a skill we learned in our ‘Creative Problem-Solving’ class—rather than only doing work when we had time to meet. This approach kept the project moving while respecting everyone’s time.”

Fast-forwarding to the result, Schlake says, Yuen's work has led to “a full-on nonprofit startup.” He elaborates: “Paid BSE scholars staff and organize the store as a high-end boutique. We have opening hours. We have fitting hours, and we acquired a lot of extras like ties, scarves and shirts. We have our own professional ironing steamer. Student clients rent the job interview gear for up to months at a time and pay only a dry cleaning fee. The operating cost is about $15,000 a year, and this is perfect because it creates urgency for the BSE team to come up with ideas—from sponsorships to donations—to keep the doors open. For example, CoverGirl is providing a couple hundred chapsticks as part of an interview survival kit that also includes items like a stain remover, lint roller—almost anything that you need at the last minute to ace that interview.”

Schlake says his faculty experience has shown him that undergraduates, especially freshmen, are drawn to entrepreneurship. So, “the sooner, the better that we expose them to the amazing ecosystem we have at UMD that includes the Academy for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, the Startup Shell, the XPRIZE [-inspired initiative] and all that the Dingman-Lamone Center for Entrepreneurship offers, including an opportunity for a significant amount of credits to count toward the Dingman-Lamone Center-facilitated minor in entrepreneurial leadership.”

Regarding BSE Scholars, Yuen identifies an embedded “mentorship-to-community factor” as critical to its participants. “BSE has truly been one of the biggest factors to how meaningful my college experience has been so far. BSE is not only an amazing academic program, but it’s a community of supportive and welcoming people,” she says. “From just being friendly faces throughout the halls of the business school to being some of the best friends I’ve met in college, BSE has always made me feel like I have a friend on campus, both inside and outside of the business school.”

Yuen further describes Schlake’s and BSE Scholars Assistant Director Obioma Akaigwe’s mentorship as “invaluable.” She adds, “They supported me from day one, from guiding me in serving as staff advisor to Maryland Club Roller Hockey and through the planning of the OCS/BSE Career Boutique and the BSE Gala. I am incredibly grateful for their mentorship and constant encouragement; they have helped me grow as a person and as a leader.” 

Ultimately, she says she is most proud of the career boutique. “It started as just an idea for my capstone project. But seeing it come to life these past couple of months and knowing how many students it’ll help has been one of the most rewarding parts of my time at Maryland.”

Read more about College Park Scholars’ Business, Society and Entrepreneurship program.