Kieron Williams/Staff Writer
The College of Business Administration is gaining a reputation: ranked among the top 5 percent worldwide, according to The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business International.
It is also ranked among the top 10 “America’s Best Colleges,” according to U.S. News & Business Report. The college has been included in this list every year from 2005 to 2011, while no other Florida school has broken the top 15.
“Our college of business doesn’t just focus on the study of business, but the practice of it,” said Vinesh Kanusing, a junior marketing major. “In that way, it fosters the growth of students with world-class knowledge as well as practical experience.”
One of the newest ways the business school provides students with practical knowledge is through the Miami Open Coffee Club, an open forum held once every three weeks where entrepreneurs and business professionals go to mentor, consult, network and teach business to any student willing to come.
On Oct. 3, professionals will sit together in one area with valuable information for anyone who visits them. Students are encouraged to greet and meet over some coffee.
Every meeting attracts professionals from different backgrounds; last meeting’s mentors included Alex Fernandez of MBF Healthcare Partners, David LeVine of the LeVine Group and David Gruberg of Greenberg Traurig.
All the components are there for a club to thrive, except for one crucial thing: the students.
“We’re gaining traction by working with our venture sponsors and using co-working spaces, but we’re trying to gain more because not a lot of students are coming,” said Karyne Bury, marketing and events manager at the University’s Pino Global Entrepreneurship Center. “We actually have more entrepreneurs and mentors showing up than we do students.”
Miami Open Coffee Club is a collaborative effort that brings together the business student and the business professional, giving students a source for critical information and providing the professional with a potential intern or business partner.
“A lot of students want to become entrepreneurs, but don’t know how to start,” Bury said. “So we’re trying to make sure our students know that the best way to learn is from professionals.”
Many distinguished executives have been lined up to mentor these club meetings.
Susan Amat, the founder of Venture Hive, an incubator company that specializes in start-ups and economic development in Miami, has been confirmed as a mentor for this week’s Open Coffee Club. Amat was not available for this report.
Amat’s company has grants from Miami Downtown Development Authority, as well as Mayor Carlos Gimenez, and is home to 35 companies and over 100 entrepreneurs.
Ricardo Weisz, another mentor for this week’s meeting, is a versatile international marketing executive with a strong relationship with the University.
He has extensive expertise in start-ups and brand development, tenure with the Walt Disney Company and has successfully headed several ventures.
Another mentor is Xavier Gonzalez, the executive director of the Technology Foundation of the Americas, a company whose mission is to establish Miami as a technology hub for the Americas to connect the world with Latin innovation in technology.
“I’ve been meaning to talk to somebody about my idea for a business,” said Kanusing. “I didn’t even know I had an opportunity like this.”
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