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There’s a hidden gem among the many colleges and universities that call South Florida home.
In Brickell, the city’s financial center, nestled among glittering business offices and luxury condos towering over Biscayne Bay is Babson college, a century-old business school that came to Miami in 2017, offering graduate MBA degrees and professional development for working entrepreneurs.
As a gem, Babson would clearly be the citrine, the “money gemstone” associated with success and abundance. It is a rare form of yellow quartz.
In ancient times, people believed that citrine gemstones also could calm tempers, soothe anger and manifest desires, especially prosperity. To leverage these powers, Egyptians used citrine gemstones as talismans, the ancient Greeks carved iconic images into them, and Roman priests fashioned them into rings.
Today artificial citrine is being “forged,” as it were, by heating low grade amethyst from purple to the citrine’s yellow to amber hue. Babson is no forgery.
It opened its Miami campus in 2017, at 1200 Brickell Ave., explains Director Gustavo Trintade, with fewer than two dozen graduate students. Its graduate enrollment has tripled since that modest opening.
Never heard of Babson? U.S. News and World Report has ranked it number one in MBAs focusing on entrepreneurship for 30 consecutive years. This year, Princeton Review’s Entrepreneur Magazine also rate Babson number one.
Miami was a natural choice for a new campus, Mr. Trintade told Miami Today. Historically it is rated among the top five cities nationwide for startup businesses for at least the last decade.
On Sept. 3, 1919, the Babson Institute opened its doors at Roger and Grace Babson’s Abbott Road home in Wellesley, a Boston suburb. The Institute began with 27 students.
It offered a one-year Certificate in Business Administration also called a Certificate in Management. The program presumed some business or college experience.
“Miami, at that time,” Mr. Trintade says, “was ranked as the number one city for startup activity nationwide.”
“Babson has created a methodology called ET&A, entrepreneurial thought and action,” Mr. Trintade explains, “basically trying to teach students to act more than just being behind the scenes.”
Historically, he said, “people believe entrepreneurs were born, not made. You needed certain traits and a personality type to be an entrepreneur.
“That’s just not true,” he continued, “you can teach entrepreneurship. We believe in that.”
Mr. Trintade, a native of Brazil, is, himself, a Babson MBA graduate. When he heard the school wanted to open a campus in Miami, “I raised my hand, and here I am.”
The Miami campus has students from 10 countries, including the US. About half are from Latin America. The male/female ratio is about 50-50, he said. “Last year we started with more female students than male. In 2016 the Knight Foundation contracted with Babson to create an accelerated program for women-owned businesses.
“We have some 43,000 alumna is 125 countries,” he adds.
Babson offers a two-year MBA program, costing around $90,000, and offers a select number of merit-based scholarships.
https://www.miamitodaynews.com/2023/08/22/bostons-babson-turns-out-mbas-on-brickell-avenue/
