Albany State University has won a $2.24 million competitive grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce's Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) to build an entrepreneurship education program for 1,000 business owners across Southwest Georgia.
The two-year initiative, running from Sept. 1, 2026, through Aug. 31, 2028, will cover a 38-county region anchored by the Albany metro area. It combines coursework, credentials and connections to capital for founders in a largely rural stretch of the state.
The money flows through the MBDA's Parren J. Mitchell Entrepreneurship Education Program, named for Maryland's first Black member of Congress. The award is notable given the agency's recent upheaval: a March 2025 executive order directed the MBDA to shrink to its legal minimum, and most of its staff were laid off or reassigned before a federal judge blocked the order's implementation. The Mitchell grants, a statutory mandate, continued.
Rather than adopt an existing curriculum, Albany State will write its own, organized around Southwest Georgia's anchor industries: agribusiness and food manufacturing; defense, logistics and advanced manufacturing; consumer goods and packaging; and healthcare.
"This award allows Albany State University to build a durable engine for entrepreneurship, capital access, and job creation in the communities we serve," said Dr. Jarrod Benjamin, vice president for student affairs and enrollment management, who wrote the proposal and will direct the project. He has secured and managed more than $26 million in federal, state and private funding.
Participants will earn digital micro-credentials through Credly, with 650 expected over the grant period. Those badges stack toward a new 23-credit-hour Certificate of Entrepreneurship and Economic Impact, which will be embedded in ASU's BBA and MBA programs and also offered on its own to working professionals not enrolled in a degree.
"We built this curriculum from the ground up for the entrepreneurs of Southwest Georgia, grounding it in evidence and in the real assets of our region," said Dr. Peter A. Ngwafu, dean of the College of Business, Education, and Professional Studies, who is leading curriculum design. Embedding the credentials in degree tracks, he added, will create "economic opportunity that stays in our communities."
Dr. Erin Gilliam, vice provost for student academic progression, will co-lead course and credential development and oversee assessment and quality assurance.
To reach rural entrepreneurs, the university will host free information sessions and bootcamps and run a loaner program providing laptops and tablets to eligible participants. Organizers also plan to guide participants toward technology-transfer resources that can move innovations toward market.
Founded in 1903, Albany State is Georgia's largest public HBCU and says it generates more than $328 million in annual economic impact for the area. Because the certificate will live permanently within the business school, officials say the effort is built to keep producing business owners long after the federal dollars are spent.
