When most people hear the word “entrepreneur,” they think of things like small business, ownership, or maybe even being rich and famous. Most people think that they can never do that and that working for someone else is the only best option. They want job security. Obtaining the job of a lifetime is a goal most college students dream of, but some decide they want more. They don’t want to just land that dream job, they want to create it from the ground up and make their business other students’ dream. They want to be entrepreneurs.
MATC now has given students that opportunity to help them start up their own business by opening up the entrepreneurship technical diploma program in the fall semester of 2012.
The head of the program, Armen Hadjinian, program Coordinator and instructor, Entrepreneurship said, “This will help them take their business from the kitchen table or the garage, and get their product or service out there to get customers.”
Hadjinian got the idea during
his 30 years of teaching business
and started to realize that each
year more and more students wanted to own their own business, rather than working for someone else.
The entrepreneurship program
helps students do just that. This program is different from a business degree in the sense that it does not teach students how to become good managers in a well-established corporation, it teaches students how to be resourceful on a limited budget and how to expand their strengths.
One student in this program  is Robert Dorgay. Dorgay, a contractor, said that he joined the program when he was looking to switch from an IT degree to something that would help him be more self-sufficient and run his own company. When asked why he wanted to change from IT, Dorgay said, “With the rate of technology changing every quarter, it’s so vast. It can be stressful keeping up,” and because of that he wanted to own his own business.
Another student who has profited from the program is Damien Miller, who owns and operates Pink Bunny Games, located at 1204 Minnesota Ave. South Milwaukee and online at www.pinkbunnygames.com.
Because of his busy schedule and running his business, Miller takes advantage of the blended learning that the program offers and takes classes online and in the classroom when his schedule permits it.

Miller got into the program through Hadjinian’s Business Statistics course and learned that with his online business he had started, an entrepreneur degree would be better suited for his needs.
Both Dorgay and Miller said this program has helped them start and better run their own businesses. Dorgay told The Times, “You show them the tools. This is what I can do, this is what I stand by and you stand by your product.” Miller said that the program helped teach him how to run his own business and not just how to take over a corporate chain.
Being able to better make decisions, networking, finding clients but also having the freedom and knowledge to make the business better are just a few things this program helps with. Miller said that he enrolled in school “not looking to get a degree, but to get the knowledge to run a business,” and both he and Dorgay feel this program has helped them succeed in this mission.
The classes have no tests; instead they rely on projects that tie in with the student’s business and how to improve it. The diploma program itself is held both in a classroom setting and online, to help accommodate students’ busy schedules.
Financial aid is available for the program, as well as grants and scholarships, which was made possible through the Helen Bader Foundation’s grant of $50,000 to help students finance their education.
For students who are interested in joining the program, or looking for assistance or services with their own businesses, the Entrepreneurship Center is located in M326.