Faculty Spotlight: Business professor teaches how to monetize your skills

“What is the difference between a dentist making $150,000 a year and a dentist making $1.2 million a year?” asked David Moradian, professor and program manager of entrepreneurship at Seminole State College of Florida. “The difference is the business.”

“You have to have a sense of business to be able to make money out of the skills you have,” he says. One of Moradian’s skills is his ability to help students understand the purpose of what they are learning. His experience in a variety of industries enables him to use real-world examples to bolster student learning and, ultimately, student success. Connecting with students is a major component for a successful educator, and Moradian says that professors need to “put themselves in the shoes of the students: where they come from, why they are there and what they want to achieve” in order to facilitate students’ accomplishments. Moradian’s academic career as a student started at Seminole State, where he completed his associate degree before moving on to earn his MBA from American University. 

His career path led him to a variety of jobs from banking, to small business, to manufacturing where he managed an international team of 110 professionals. Through it all, he has always carried a love of teaching. Growing up in Iran, he earned money by tutoring other children. As an adult, he taught mathematics during his lunch hour before returning to his full-time job for the rest of the day. 

He has brought success to the entrepreneurship program and Seminole State as a whole. Moradian has been a longtime supporter of the Foundation and established the Moradian Family Endowed Scholarship to provide financial assistance to students in need. In 2015 he was one of the founding members of the College’s Alumni Association, and the very next year he launched the Seminole Start Up Entrepreneurship Competition. The competition gives students the opportunity to create and develop a business plan to present to a panel of experienced entrepreneurs and investors in the community with the potential of winning cash awards of $500, $1,000, or $2,500.

Integration with the community is one area where Moradian is particularly proud of his department. The program benefits from an active advisory board made up of CEOs and entrepreneurs from the local and regional landscape. Moradian seeks their advice as to what they are looking for in their employees and, in turn, works their requirements into the program’s curriculum. “Our entrepreneurship program is 100 percent employed,” he said. “Whoever graduates is employed or they find a job right off the bat. That is the success of the program.”

Through group work and real-world anecdotes to show outcomes, he broadens students’ understanding of how the theory they learn in class can be applied to their careers. Out of all the lessons he teaches however, Moradian stresses that communication is key and students “need to be prepared to communicate effectively with their supervisor, their management and their colleagues.” 

Want to hone your entrepreneurial instincts? Check out Seminole State’s entrepreneurship program and the Center for Business, Legal and Entrepreneurship.