Madison Aument
For 91.9 KVCR News, I’m Madison Aument, and this is Economics I.E. On today’s episode, I’m speaking to Tomás Gomez-Arias. He’s the dean of the Jack H. Brown College of Business and Public Administration at Cal State San Bernardino. We spoke about the School of Entrepreneurship, which is part of the College of Business and the first of its kind in California.
Can you tell me about the School of Entrepreneurship?
Tomás Gomez-Arias
For the last 25 years, people have been working really hard at creating an entrepreneurship program that serves the needs of the Inland Empire—one that is not obsessed with “we need to replicate Silicon Valley or New York,” or whatever it is that you want to imagine. What are the needs of the Inland Empire, of the region where we are? How can we support the entrepreneurs that are right here and nurture that environment? And that work is showing results.
We have both the School of Entrepreneurship and the Inland Empire Center for Entrepreneurship. But those are two sides of the same coin. One is more academic; the other one is really action in the community. And the fact is that together, they are working with 20 to 30,000 entrepreneurs every year to help them start out.
You know, we are approaching, over the last 20 years, a billion dollars in economic impact because we are focused on the needs of the regional economy—of the region where we are—and that’s what is making us successful. Yes, we are getting there. Probably in the next year or so, we will reach the billion-dollar mark in terms of the funding, sales, etc., that the companies that we have been supporting have achieved.
Madison Aument
What are some of the success stories you can think of that have come from the School of Entrepreneurship?
Tomás Gomez-Arias
One of the success stories that I’m more familiar with—and I’m sure there are many others—is Kids That Code. That’s a program. It really started as sort of a coding academy: three students in the program working together, staying late at night, thinking about, “Okay, what can we do together?” And they launched the company.
It became successful. They have opened a couple of different locations. And that’s the kind of success story that has both the academic component and the community component, right? All the way from thinking about things and learning about things to actually having a company started, established, getting out of incubation, hiring people, having several locations, and making money. It’s meaningful.
Madison Aument
That was Tomás Gomez-Arias, who is the dean of the Jack H. Brown College at Cal State San Bernardino.
Before I sign off, I want to plug KVCR’s new Discord server. If you’ve ever had a question about the IE’s economy, wanted to share your thoughts, or just connect with other listeners, this is for you. Join our community to chat with me and other listeners, get behind-the-scenes updates, and help shape our reporting. You can find more information about signing up on this episode’s webpage at kvcrnews.org/econie.
This segment is funded by the Nowak Family.
For KVCR News, I’m Madison Aument.
HOW TO SIGN UP FOR DISCORD
Here is a link to join: https://discord.gg/aQX5G7mg
What is a server?
The cool thing about Discord is the power to create invite-only spaces. There are servers for all kinds of communities— it’s big for gamers, but there’s also book clubs, language learning groups, etc.
What’s a channel?
Within each server are multiple channels. In the KVCR channel, I have a category called “Economics IE” that has a few channels (econo-memes, ive-always-wanted-to-know, and segment-discussion). So far, I’ve only set up text channels where members can engage via text… sorta like Reddit. They keep conversations organized and give everyone plenty of room to talk. I’ve added a few broader categories for station events and places where locals can share.
