In a New York Times article published this Sunday, John Schwartz seemed taken aback to discover that college students aren’t always hopeless academics passing classes by the seat of their pants. He writes:

“I find myself on plenty of college campuses these days, and many of the students I meet are indistinguishable from the dull-eyed slackers I went to college with […] But then there are those who have this…THING, this go-getting excitement to start something, make something.”

Of course, if you’ve been a long time reader of The CollegeBound Network and our former publication CollegeBound Teen magazine, you already know that teens and college students are always on the move with new ideas and approaches to the world. What can we say? They have entrepreneurial spirit, and it emerges in surprising ways. Unfortunately, Schwartz is under the impression that the best place to find such students is in college entrepreneurship programs. His examples? A student who wants to import hangover-fighting pills from Thailand and one who wants to start a college bus tour service in Boston.

Our examples?

A teen who started her own greeting card line to market to other teens.

College students who created their own dorm-delivery food services.

And college students with businesses that deliver to everyone in town and ones that sell customized T-shirts.

Unlike the stories Schwartz put forward, the above students come from all walks of life and majors. They didn’t enter an entrepreneurship program in search of creating a money-making product, they happened onto a market need and had the brains and drive to come up with an answer. That’s a true entrepreneur.

– Genevieve M. Blaber