Pitt Professor Aims for Grads to Pack Core Values for Entrepreneurial Pursuits - Higher Education

Pitt Professor Aims for Grads to Pack Core Values for Entrepreneurial Pursuits - Higher Education: As a high school student in Seattle, Paul Harper was fired up about going to a historically Black college upon graduation. Inspired by the hit television series “A Different World,” Harper became an avid reader of W.E.B. Du Bois and Cornel West, Du Bois’ generational successor.

Soon, Harper was studying at HBCU Fisk University in Nashville, Tenn., eventually earning a bachelor’s degree in religious and philosophical studies, then heading to graduate school to earn a Ph.D.

At some point during his graduate school pursuits, which included two years in the divinity school at the University of Chicago, Harper concluded he needed to broaden his focus in order to stay relevant and employable. He shifted gears, enrolling in the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia, where he earned his M.B.A. with an emphasis in ethics, strategy and entrepreneurship and a Ph.D. in business administration.