
The Center for Entrepreneurship at San Jacinto College’s Generation Park Campus offers budding entrepreneurs the resources and guidance they need to launch and grow their small businesses.
“The Center for Entrepreneurship is designed to act as a catalyst to assist small business owners and entrepreneurs in gaining access to knowledge necessary for developing, strengthening, and growing their business interests,” said Patricia Wells, project director. “Our goal is to establish San Jacinto College as a leading partner and provider of entrepreneurship training and development within the Greater Houston metropolitan area.”
An opportunity for all

Patricia Wells
The Center for Entrepreneurship is open to everyone.
“We are here to support our students, the community, and local businesses at any stage of development, as well as our local workforce,” Wells said.
The center offers a variety of free certificate courses to assist entrepreneurs and small business owners. This opportunity is made possible through the Texas Reskill and Upskill through Education grant, which provides scholarship funds to support education and training programs that are shorter than six months in high-demand fields.
These scholarship funds are available to anyone seeking to develop, maintain, and grow their businesses. The TRUE grant funds will be available until December 2024. After that, the courses will still be offered as self-pay.
What does training entail?
Currently, the available TRUE grant funds support the following short-term training and upskill opportunities with some certificate training included. Course length varies based on subject and content, mostly ranging from six to eight weeks with attendance two days per week:
- Small Business Management
- Digital Literacy IC3
- Microsoft Office
- Entrepreneurship
- Marketing
- Finance
The center partners with the Small Business Development Center, Continuing and Professional Development Center, advisory committee, industry partners, and subject matter experts to deliver content.
Collaboration with local businesses

Center for Entrepreneurship
“Our goal is to not only provide training and education, but we also want to support community growth and development,” Wells said. “We can accomplish this through working with our local chambers, economic development centers, and community stakeholders.
The workshops strengthen and grow the business interests of participants. Serious business owners and entrepreneurs will gain access to knowledge needed for decision making.
“From a student perspective, we found that graduates continue to express great excitement and appreciation for the program availability and content,” Wells said. “Advisory committee members are also excited about serving as subject matter experts to help ensure program offerings are relevant and aligned with industry needs.”
The center offers an annual summer camp for youth interested in entrepreneurship.
Dr. Destry Dokes, provost of the Generation Park Campus and San Jac Online, has embraced opportunities to inspire camp attendees and encourage their interest in business.
“One of my most memorable experiences [at San Jac] was working with sixth through 12th grade students through the Young CEO workshop to help them explore and discuss goal setting and creating a vision for their lives,” Dokes said.
A benefit to the community
Wells hopes new businesses will grow within the community with the center’s help.
“I would like to see students who complete our workshops open brick-and-mortar businesses, food trucks, jewelry stores — just any physical or online locations where they take what we taught them, implement that knowledge, and use it to serve the community,” Wells said. “That’s what will show that we are truly making a difference.”
Learn more about the Center for Entrepreneurship.
By Neesha Hosein