Larry Cox , director of Ball State’s Entrepreneurship Center, defines an entrepreneur as someone with the energy, grit, and determination to make a business succeed.

Students need all those characteristics—and more—to graduate from this nationally ranked program.

“At Ball State, we apply the term ‘entrepreneur’ to individuals who tackle tough problems, work from the bottom up, and craft businesses that creatively solve the challenges of life,” he says. “We embrace the notion that collegiate education is really a journey in which students and teachers accompany each other in the laboratory of life, learning from one another in the real-world context.”

In Cox’s Introduction to Entrepreneurship class, students quickly figure out whether they have what it takes. All students participate in the “$20 Challenge”—building a business with a budget of only $20 and their imaginations.

“Sometimes, the experience teaches them that entrepreneurship is not their cup of tea," he says. "Most often, however, students discover their inner entrepreneur and are motivated to take charge of their lives and careers.”

And take charge they can. Not only do they learn from the best, but they also have the opportunity to work with mentors and intern at Ball State’s business incubator program. They might even be selected to represent Ball State in the Nascent 500 Business Plan Challenge, which culminates in a 500-second presentation (about eight minutes) to judges while riding in the back of a limo around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

When it comes time to graduate, they must pass a final test: Convince a panel of business professionals that they have created a viable business plan. Now that’s a huge dose of the real world!

Watch the commercial where Cox and Ball State students talk about how a Ball State education applies to the real world.