U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter visited the Fox School of Business on Monday for a wide-ranging discussion that emphasized entrepreneurship and small businesses as economic engines.

Specter spent more than a half hour talking with MBA and MS students in Alter Hall’s seventh-floor MBA Commons, where he touched on topics ranging from trade with China and healthcare reform to national debt and the “gridlock politics of Washington.”

He also urged students to become involved in public service.

“America needs saving; the world needs saving,” he said. “With your expertise in business, perhaps you can do the job.”

Raza Bokhari, a physician-turned-serial-entrepreneur and Fox School alumnus, arranged Specter’s visit. In addition to a luncheon with school and university officials, including President Ann Weaver Hart, Specter toured the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Institute (IEI), which serves as a hub for campus-wide entrepreneurial activities.

Photos by Ryan Brandenberg/Temple University

Two successful entrepreneurs who benefitted from the IEI’s services and support addressed the graduate students before their question-and-answer period with Specter.

Shawn Bullard, a former NFL player and graduate of the School of Tourism and Hospitality Management, described Pitbull Development, his boutique real-estate development firm that specializes in rehabbing properties around Temple’s Main Campus. Bullard, whose venture won IEI’s 2009 Be Your Own Boss Bowl, said, “Temple University is like my heart.”

Mohamed Ali Niang, an international student majoring in entrepreneurship and international business economics, explained his award-winning social entrepreneurship venture Malo Traders, which aims to help small-scale rice farmers in Mali.

Niang said he transferred to Temple less than a year ago and already has a social entrepreneurship venture ready to launch thanks to his partnership with the IEI, its faculty and mentor network.

Specter said entrepreneurs should possess boldness, intelligence, imagination, analytical skills, a willingness to work hard and the ability to take “prudent risks.”

And those are just the type of entrepreneurs the Fox School and Temple want to cultivate.

“Our goal is the creation of jobs through entrepreneurial activities, and we are seeking the senator’s support to focus the political environment into supporting entrepreneurial activities and small businesses that create two-thirds of the jobs in America,” said Fox School Dean M. Moshe Porat. “Our goal is to create thousands of these students who will create jobs, and we want the senator’s support to help us educate those thousands.”