Inspiring entrepreneurship
April Lane Schuster shares her passion for entrepreneurship and her direct experience from her start-ups with her students.
Senior Lecturer April Lane Schuster is a deeply experienced entrepreneur, having created startups from food production to consulting.
"I can talk about entrepreneurship all day long," said Schuster. "It is a passion of mine. It's something I've been doing for over 20 years."
That passion shines at the Quinlan School of Business, where she helps students cultivate their ideas into their own business ventures through thoughtfully structured classes and a supportive community of Loyola entrepreneurs.
A career in creation
Schuster has gotten her hands on nearly every conceivable way to pursue and foster entrepreneurship. Her journey began when she left her corporate marketing job to start anew.
"I had started a corporate career after college but decided it wasn't for me," Schuster said. "I didn't even know any entrepreneurs, but I just knew it was what I wanted to do. Starting a business is just inherently fun."
She went back to school to pursue an entrepreneurship MBA at DePaul University, where she would graduate and work in the entrepreneurship center. There, she consulted for small businesses and helped students launch entrepreneurial ventures.
In 2016, Schuster came to Quinlan to help shape the school's entrepreneurship program inside and outside the classroom.
Hands-on entrepreneurship
At Quinlan, Schuster has used her years of expertise to help build an ecosystem where students can hone their entrepreneurial skills and thinking.
In the classroom, Schuster teaches entrepreneurship courses across different focuses, including marketing, global, social, strategic, experiential, and even executive.
Each fall, she teaches an entrepreneurial marketing course, which puts students in the driver's seat for creating sales and marketing strategies. In fall 2024, students worked with Shark Tank business Pluie, a female and locally owned business centered in baby care.
Students are taught to operate businesses in the real world, which is dynamic and full of twists and turns. That's why she challenges students to work on case studies for real clients and invites speakers from local businesses to the classroom.
"You can't just read a textbook or read a book and expect to be perfect," Schuster said. "The class lends itself to doing a lot of experiential hands-on learning. It's very application focused: We learn something on Tuesday, and we're applying it on Thursday."
Schuster also serves as Quinlan’s director of entrepreneurial initiatives. With this role, she is building opportunities for students to gain entrepreneurial knowledge and support through initiatives like Launch Loyola and the New Venture Pitch Competition.
"I just love working with the students, with their optimism and their 'why not, why can't we' attitude," Schuster said. "The way they view the world is really infectious."
A dependable resource
Schuster wants to see students thrive in their entrepreneurial ventures. One of her strategies is to challenge students to think critically about situations surrounding their ideas.
"We pause to think about current topics and issues in entrepreneurship and think 'How does this apply to me, how does this apply to my community, and how does this apply to the world?'" Schuster said.
She also provides a supportive realism to her students. Schuster will support nearly all her students' ideas, but does so from a “yes, and…” perspective.
"I generally don't tell students they have a bad idea, but I do bring some reality and challenge them with a 'Have you thought about this?' or 'What if this happens?'" Schuster said.
At the end of the day, she wants students to thrive, and she wants to do it together.
"I tell students when they graduate that I'm always here," Schuster said. "I have students who reach out from five, ten years ago, and I meet with them."
It's all part of sharing what she loves.
"I love working with students and entrepreneurship,” Schuster said. “I love talking about it, and I love spending my time on it."