SURE Model: Human-Centered Education Driving Societal Impact

Theme: Addressing Regional or Local Challenges

Summary of Initiative

The SURE℠ program at the University of Houston’s (UH) Bauer College of Business is an innovative experiential learning model that addresses the student skills gap and combats poverty linked to limited access to capital, education, and trusted networks. UH students, local entrepreneurs, and executives collaborate in a highly focused semesterlong course that instills skills currency in students, provides mentorship to entrepreneurs, and drives community-based economic renewal.

Call to Action for Initiative

The SURE (Stimulating Urban Renewal through Entrepreneurship) program emerged from a pivotal moment in 2014. This program coincided with meetings between senior UH officials and community leaders. Following two meetings, UH chancellor Renu Khator asked community representatives to identify the issue they most wished to explore further, and the response was nearly unanimous: community engagement.

These meetings led to the creation of the University Neighborhood Partnership Forum, co-chaired by UH vice president for neighborhood and strategic initiatives, Elwyn Lee, and pastor emeritus William Lawson, to study best practices for university-community collaboration. The forum’s work culminated in a comprehensive report in late 2015, which directly informed the establishment of the Third Ward Initiative in 2016—an institutional effort to strengthen schools, businesses, and healthcare resources in partnership with local organizations.

Within this context, the then two-year-old SURE program was identified as the university’s primary vehicle for fostering economic empowerment. With the chancellor’s backing of 100,000 USD over two years and subsequent support from the UH provost totaling 300,000 USD to establish a formal center, SURE has since expanded dramatically in scale, popularity, and measurable impact.

Local Socioeconomic Challenge

Houston faces significant socioeconomic disparities. An estimated 21 percent of residents live below the poverty line, compared to a national average of 14 percent. In the city’s 20 most impoverished zip codes, poverty rates range between 35 and 55 percent. Research indicates that these disparities are driven not by a weak economy but by insufficient education and limited access to capital, two structural barriers that hinder entrepreneurial success and economic mobility.

The SURE program's pedagogy fulfills higher education's social mission of building inclusive societies. It addresses the inequities by equipping local entrepreneurs with the education, tools, and support needed to start and sustain businesses. Many participants possess strong work ethics and viable business ideas but lack access to the financial resources, mentorship, and professional and social networks that drive long-term success. By targeting businesses owned and operated by local aspiring entrepreneurs, SURE aligns with UH’s mission as an institution committed to economic inclusion.

Educational and Societal Imperatives

Beyond addressing local poverty, the SURE program responds to broader shifts in business education and workforce development.

• Triple Bottom Line and Societal Impact: Business education is evolving toward the “triple bottom line” of profit, people, and planet. In alignment with AACSB Standard 9 on societal impact and the Global Business School Network’s mission to build inclusive societies, SURE represents a values-driven, purposeful learning alternative to the traditional “profits-over-people” model, preparing students to be ethical, community-conscious leaders.
• Bridging the Skills Gap: Employers consistently report a gap in essential human-centric skills—empathy, leadership, communication, and collaboration—that cannot be cultivated through lecture-based teaching alone. The SURE program bridges this gap by providing hands-on, real-world immersion learning, allowing students to apply their business knowledge as they guide entrepreneurs in creating professional business plans.

Through its dual mission—uplifting local communities while cultivating the next generation of socially responsible business leaders—the SURE program is a powerful regional response to entrenched poverty, limited economic mobility, and evolving educational needs, regenerative for both people and the planet.

Institution’s Role in Initiative

The UH Bauer College of Business addressed these challenges by implementing the SURE educational model, an innovative, self-sustaining experiential learning program.

SURE creates a unique ecosystem that fosters mutual learning and business development through a three-way partnership among students, local entrepreneurs, and executive business leaders. The core of the program is an academic course, Brainstorming to Bankrolling, which is embedded in the university curriculum as a three-hour, for-credit course, ensuring long-term institutional commitment. The course is fully applied, real-world immersion learning, without a traditional textbook or exams.

A key innovation is the flipped experiential learning model: Instead of one client working with multiple students, SURE operates on a model of one student to multiple clients. UH students serve as consultants to groups of three entrepreneurs each for a full 15-week semester. Prior to consulting, students receive three weeks of dedicated training on how to advise, apply their skills, and leverage their networks. The course is industry-neutral, accepting enterprises ranging from childcare to lawn care to food trucks, bakeries, organic skin care products, healthcare, and other areas.

Key Individuals and Groups Involved

• Students: Students apply their business knowledge, acting as consultants to guide their entrepreneurs in developing a complete, professional-grade business plan. This immersive learning environment provides them with opportunities to develop essential human-centric skills, such as empathy, critical thinking, communication, and leadership.
• Entrepreneurs: Current and aspiring under-resourced entrepreneurs from the Houston area (400 to 600 per semester) attend an initial master class and then apply to the semesterlong program. Those accepted attend class on campus every week, sitting and working with their student consultant groups. The program is provided at zero cost to them.
• Executive Subject Matter Experts: Local business leaders and experts, including professionals from Accenture, HPE, accounting firms (EY, PwC), CPA groups (TXCPA), bankers, and other firms, as well as mentors from SCORE (a free, mentor-matching service), volunteer their time to lecture weekly on business principles like financial literacy, accounting, marketing, finance, and law. As many as 80 professional mentors are available each semester.
• College Faculty and Leadership: The program acknowledges the leadership of Saleha B. Khumawala, professor and executive director of the Dakri Center for Economic Inclusion, and Esther E. Bailey, professor of practice in management and leadership, along with the entire teaching team.

Success and Innovation Factors

The model’s success hinges on the symbiotic relationship and alignment of goals. Experts donate their time to build their personal brands and client pipelines. Students develop the human-centric skills they need for the future of work and gain real-world professional consulting experience. Entrepreneurs receive critical business training and a professional business plan and develop a network.

This collaborative model also extends to strategic partnerships with various UH colleges and departments, including the University of Houston Law Center’s Entrepreneurship and Community Development Clinic, the College of Education, the Hobby School of Public Affairs, the Department of Computer Science, the Valenti School of Communication, the Graduate School of Social Work, and the Cullen College of Engineering, among others. Furthermore, the initiative is designed to be self-sustaining by mobilizing existing resources to expand their impact and consistently attracting external funding and volunteer support.

Impact of Initiative

The SURE program has achieved significant societal impact, driving economic empowerment and positive change in the region by focusing on underserved communities and equipping the next generation of business leaders.

Economic and Business Growth Impact

As of December 2025, the SURE program has had a profound quantitative impact on the Houston area:

• Total Economic Impact: over 501 million USD
• Entrepreneurs Educated: more than 2,300 entrepreneurs from over 77 zip codes
• Businesses Launched/Grown: 1,420
• Annual Revenue Generated: 55 million USD in annual revenue generated by SURE-trained business owners in 2025
• Jobs Created: 3,300 total jobs created by SURE-trained entrepreneurs
• Business Longevity: 70 percent of the businesses launched or grown through SURE remain in operation, significantly exceeding the national U.S. Small Business Administration average of 49 percent survival after five years.
• Consulting Value: 10,200 hours of one-on-one consulting by UH students annually, valued at more than 1.6 million USD

Community Uplift and Inclusivity

SURE is dedicated to building inclusive societies by focusing on populations historically excluded from access to capital and professional and social networks. The program confirms its broad, diverse reach:

• Seventy-seven percent of participants are women.
• Half of the participants are African American, and 27 percent are Hispanic or Latino.
• Sixty-three percent of participants meet federal Community Reinvestment Act qualifications, indicating they are below the federal low-income threshold.
• The profile of the “average” participant is a 41-year-old African American woman in a three-person, low-income household.

The SURE program focuses on smaller businesses and the impact that solopreneurs and small, locally owned businesses can have on building a stronger economy. A 2018 American Express study found that when a dollar is spent at a small business, two-thirds (67 cents) of that dollar stays in the local community. SURE’s focus on inclusive entrepreneurship aligns with the goal of regenerating community wealth.

The program delivers life-changing results beyond business growth, often focusing on crucial personal finance and financial literacy. For example, 98 percent of participants agreed that the program improved their knowledge of personal income, credit, and debt, and of the importance of financial goals. One entrepreneur, Tracy, used the support to reduce her home mortgage by over half.

Impact on Students and Community Buy-In

The initiative also creates positive change by transforming students into socially responsible leaders. Students develop an entrepreneurial mindset and critical human-centric skills, including empathy, communication, critical thinking, and leadership needed for the future of work and cannot be replaced by an algorithm. They gain a broader, more ethical view of business, learning the importance of the triple bottom line of profit, people, and planet.

The program’s high satisfaction level—evidenced by a Net Promoter Score of 75 percent—results in significant community buy-in. Alumni entrepreneurs often create a ripple effect by taking what they learned back to their communities. Every semester, over 80 entrepreneur alumni and 30 student alumni volunteers return and work with current participants, serving as a testament to the program’s enduring mission.

Furthermore, while the immediate impact is local, the program has extended its positive influence by freely sharing its materials and methodology, creating a community of practice and helping other institutions (for example, the University of Texas at San Antonio) implement the model nationally and globally (in Jordan, India, and other countries).

Additional Information

• “How UH Students Are Helping Third Ward Entrepreneurs,” Houston Chronicle
• “UH SURE Program Testimonials,” YouTube video
• “Entrepreneurship Program Helps enSURE Economic Success,” University Economic Development Association