By Asia Matthews, SGJC Student News Network
Kaile’ Wright, an alum of Morgan State University, never thought she’d see herself becoming a hairstylist. Graduating with an Accounting degree, Wright knew she needed a way to make money while in school, but never saw doing hair as a path for herself. She learned how to do her own natural hair from her mother, but didn’t expect to grow her talent into a business.
“If you think that you can do whatever you want on your hair, doing it on someone else’s hair is completely different,” Wright said. “You can take as many breaks as you want on your hair. But when you’re doing somebody else’s hair, their time is very important.”
Still, entrepreneurship was something Wright had dreamed about pursuing. Eventually she turned a personal hobby into a business built on natural and braided hairstyles for Morgan State students trying to balance beauty, budget, and convenience.
Just like Wright, many students turn their hobbies into business ventures as a way to support themselves both creatively and financially during their path through college.
On campus, organizations like the Entrepreneurial Development and Assistance Center (EDAC), the Collegiate Association of StartUp Entrepreneurs (C.A.S.E.), the PNC X Howard University Center for Entrepreneurship, and partnerships tied to the UNCF Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship are designed to help HBCU students, specifically at Morgan State, develop ideas and concepts that they can then turn into sustainable businesses. There’s still a missing piece to this puzzle: awareness.
A survey of 36 Morgan State students conducted between April 1 and April 10, 2026, found that 40% of respondents do not personally know any student entrepreneurs. Additionally, 55% said they were only “slightly aware” of student entrepreneurs on campus. The survey included members of S.O.F.E., FUTURE, and residents of HH Midtown Apartments. Most of the respondents acknowledged similar barriers; lack of marketing, limited accessibility, and affordability to attract support.
The Learning Curve
Entrepreneurship for Wright didn’t start with a formal business plan or concept; it started with a necessity and a willingness to learn while balancing her academic responsibilities. One of the biggest challenges she faced was learning how each of her clients required different approaches. Whether it was their hair texture, moving scalp, or styling expectations, these approaches all shaped how she worked.
“One person’s hair is not going to be the same as the next person’s,” Wright said. “The process will always be different.”
She recalled working with a client who had a moving scalp, making it difficult for her to create straight parts in her client’s hair. Wright said her client’s pre-parted sections wouldn’t stay still, forcing her to have to re-part the same sections multiple times. Experiences like this taught Wright that entrepreneurship wasn’t just about having a skill, but being adaptable and able to communicate with her clients.
Wright also connected entrepreneurship to independence while at Morgan State. She described her motivation for wanting independence as not relying on traditional nine-to-five jobs. “I would rather work the amount of time I need to work so I can build something that belongs to me,” she said. Her motivation reflects a bigger trend among HBCU students.
According to Danae Stewart, Regional Director for the PNC x Howard University Center for Entrepreneurship, “One of the top reasons HBCU students start businesses while in college is to get that freedom and to break those generational wealth gaps,” Stewart said, “Entrepreneurship brings them another opportunity to create that wealth.”
Still, Wright admitted that as a Morgan State student, she didn’t utilize the campus resources available as much as she hoped she had. But now, she sees their value more clearly. “If I could go back, I would have taken advantage of those opportunities,” Wright said, “Networking especially.”
Research, Data, and Student Perspectives
The survey data collected between April 1 and April 10, 2026 among Morgan State students, revealed that there’s a mixed understanding of entrepreneurial awareness and engagement on campus.
While there are many businesses that exist, visibility seems to remain the biggest issue. Support patterns also reflect inconsistency. Nearly 40% of respondents said they rarely support student entrepreneurs, while only 30% said they actively support, buy from, and promote student entrepreneurs.
The most common form of support, reported by 80% of the respondents, was from word-of-mouth recommendations.
Another challenge that exists with entrepreneurial awareness is institutional resources. Over 70% of the respondents said they were unfamiliar with campus resources including EDAC, C.A.S.E., and the Center for Entrepreneurship.
This data aligns with other research based on the beginning stages of entrepreneurship. According to Finoledge Education, an organization that focuses on financial literacy and investment training, one of the biggest barriers for young entrepreneurs is funding and access to capital, along with identifying a clear target audience and marketing effectively.
Additional research from the PNC Financial Services National Center for Entrepreneurship said that only 1% of Black business owners receive loans in their founding year, compared to 7% of white business owners, creating constant funding disparities.
Experts have also found that many student entrepreneurs face similar challenges when it comes to networking, lack of mentorship, and business support. Stewart said one of the most common issues she sees in Morgan State’s students is mindset when it comes to growing their businesses.
“A lot of students, once they start making money, feel profitable. They say, ‘I don’t need to sign up for this course’ or ‘I don’t need to go to this workshop.’ Not having that open mind of learning is where student entrepreneurs lack the growth.”
Turning Survival into Strategy
Erin Grady, a Morgan State nontraditional student majoring in Multimedia Journalism, and CEO of EA Cupcakery, describes her path into entrepreneurship as something that grew out of survival rather than formal education.
She started out baking regularly at home as a way to provide for her two children and cut down household expenses. “Instead of being able to buy the tasty cakes, the cookies, and all of those things, it was cheaper to buy baking supplies,” Grady said, “So I just started making things.”
What started out as home baking turned into a small business after friends and coworkers encouraged Grady to start making a profit from her desserts. Her first consistent paying customer was through her former job as a call center representative at Under Armour. “Every month they would have a birthday cake for everybody's birthday. And I, one day asked, ‘Can I bring cupcakes?’ I brought cupcakes, and they started paying me as the dessert vendor for birthdays. So that was my first one, and they taught me so much,” Grady said.
She said she became a better entrepreneur through repetition, pre-orders, and trial-and-error funding methods. There were even times when she lost money, but she didn’t allow that to stop her from reinvesting in her business and continuing to grow. “As long as I was building, I was okay,” she said.
However, Grady also acknowledges how unstable entrepreneurship can be when resources are limited. Now in her junior year at Morgan State, she said her business has slowed down compared to before, as she balances taking care of her children and being a student first. From struggling with keeping her business afloat to being consistent, she said she often had to put baking on hold. “I am back just shy of probably four months, but I've constantly had to stop just due to life, school, being a mom, juggling work, all those things…Productivity is very slow, but again, I know I'm in control,” Grady said.
Access is the Missing Link
Despite different experiences and challenges, student entrepreneurs and experts agree on one thing: access determines outcomes. According to Devon Corbin, Director of the UNCF Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, student entrepreneurs often begin with limited capital and limited networks, forcing them to rely on informal systems of support.
“Two main barriers that I've found that I both researched it and I also experienced it…access to capital,” Corbin said.
“It’s all about building that early-stage capital because you might have a family or a friend around, but nine times out of ten, our family and friends may not be able to give us $30,000 to really get the business off the ground. So we're usually left bootstrapping our businesses,” Corbin said.
He also acknowledged how important entrepreneurial programs are for students with businesses. Corbin shared how these programs are not just meant to instruct, but to connect students to opportunities, mentorship, and real-world experiences. These programs fuel the support student entrepreneurs need.
The Systems Behind Student Businesses
At Morgan State University, entrepreneurship exists in two spaces: through the visible hustle of student businesses and through the less visible resources in place to support them. Programs like EDAC, C.A.S.E., and the Center for Entrepreneurship all offer mentorship, funding access, and development opportunities.
The gap in entrepreneurial awareness raises a bigger question: not whether student businesses at Morgan State exist, but whether they’re being reached in the right ways. As a former student entrepreneur himself, Corbin said success in entrepreneurship often starts before the funding or recognition.
“You just have to start,” Corbin said. “Believe in what you really are building and use the resources that you have at your disposal…Everything else builds after that.”