Q&A: Purnima Chawla discusses dual vision of UTSA’s SURE Program

Purnima Chawla talks to a classroom of entrepreneurs and UTSA business students during a SURE program workshop.

MAY 8, 2025 — Purnima Chawla, a UTSA associate professor and director of entrepreneurship education in the Carlos Alvarez College of Business, is spearheading a growing program that is boosting businesses in San Antonio.

The Stimulating Urban Renewal through Entrepreneurship (SURE) Program offers free support to local entrepreneurs while providing UTSA business students with the opportunity to gain consulting experience by assisting in creating viable business plans.

SURE is offered by the Alvarez College of Business in partnership with the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) in UTSA’s Jude Valdez Institute for Economic Development and is run by program manager Christa Luna. This week, 15 entrepreneurs and 10 UTSA students graduated from the program.

UTSA Today spoke with Chawla to learn about the program’s dual vision of supporting economic development in San Antonio and preparing UTSA students for the workforce.

What is the SURE Program?

PC: SURE stands for Stimulating Urban Renewal through Entrepreneurship. It’s an exciting new program that we are starting at UTSA, and it brings together UTSA faculty and students with industry leaders as well as local entrepreneurs to help build strong businesses in San Antonio. We help our entrepreneurs to set up a very strong foundation for their businesses and also develop road maps for the future.

How is the SURE Program different than other business programs?

PC: One very obvious and immediate difference is the structure of the program. SURE is run like a regular university class that meets on Wednesday evenings throughout the semester. This means that entrepreneurs as well as mentors as well as the students are expected to attend class, and they are expected to do homework. What this allows us to do is to really look comprehensively at all the aspects of the entrepreneur's business and to ensure that we are making good decisions that tie together into a coherent strategy.

Another very different thing about SURE is that it's entirely focused on the entrepreneur’s goals. It's not about best practices. It's not about following the trend. We really focus on what the entrepreneur wants to do, and we help them find the best way to do it. And finally, the teamwork is absolutely amazing. Students, entrepreneurs and mentors learn from each other as much as they learn from the professors.

And honestly, for an entrepreneur, how often do you get a chance to sit with somebody who has taken the time to understand your business and your situation, and work with them to figure out the best way to achieve your goals? That’s a huge blessing for entrepreneurs.

Describe how the SURE Program is building connections to small businesses in the community?

PC: SURE is a great example of UTSA’s commitment to supporting economic development in San Antonio. The program is very practical. It’s very simple and it’s also offered free of cost to entrepreneurs, and that makes it accessible to the people who need it most.

We also intentionally recruit from all walks of life and from all types of businesses. And we do this by partnering with local organizations such as Prosper West, San Antonio for Growth on the Eastside (SAGE), Launch SA and UTSA’s Small Business Development Center. Our best ambassadors, though, are our entrepreneurs – the ones who graduate from the SURE Program. We stay in touch with them, we continue to support them, and we try to make sure that they have everything they need to be successful because ultimately, our success is measured by their success.

What do UTSA students learn by participating in this program?

PC: Professors know that there is a gap between what we teach students in the classroom and what employers want students to do the first day at work, and SURE is helping to bridge that gap. Our students get to see how business decisions are actually made, which is a very messy process with lots of non-rational factors that come into play, lots of uncertainty that comes into play.

They get to see how the business frameworks that they’re learning in class are actually being applied in the real world. And then most importantly, they learn very good consulting and project management skills such as how do you give feedback? How do you receive feedback? How do you manage team communication? So, all this learning helps them be better employees on day one, no matter where they choose to work.

What are your future plans for the SURE Program?

PC: The SURE Program is the cornerstone of the Alvarez College of Business’ community facing entrepreneurship offering, so we are going to continue to grow this program sustainably as much as our funding allows and in line with what the market demand is in San Antonio. Eventually we are thinking of possibly doing cohorts for specific kinds of entrepreneurs. That's sort of part of the long-term growth plan.

We are also trying to make sure that the people who graduate from this program continue to have really good support as they grow. And for that, we are trying to build wraparound services around these entrepreneurs so that we have the resources to connect them to assistance or to funding that they need to be able to implement specific parts of their strategic plan that they develop in class.

And finally, we are trying to build a very strong community of SURE participants who support each other, but also do business with each other. For example, our LinkedIn page features SURE participants and is a resource for them to share ideas and connect with each other.

— Michelle Gaitan