Wearing an orange UM polo shirt, Carl Schramm answers questions from students during the Q&A portion of the New Student Convocation.

With the nation still mired in an economic downturn, entrepreneur expert Carl J. Schramm told hundreds of University of Miami students last Friday that they could play an important role in reshaping the U.S. economy, encouraging them to think creatively and start ventures that spur job growth, generate wealth, and create innovation.

“It’s our job to make the American economy robust and strong,” said Schramm, delivering the New Student Convocation address at UM’s BankUnited Center.

Schramm is president and CEO of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, which provided the initial planning grant for UM’s entrepreneurship program The Launch Pad. He told students that 40 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product comes from companies that didn’t exist 30 years ago.

Schramm is the architect of the so-called Startup Act, aimed at jump-starting the U.S. economy through more successful new ventures. He also introduced the University of Miami to the Blackstone Charitable Foundation, which has enabled UM to become a national model for entrepreneurship education through the Blackstone Launch Pad program.

He told students that while they are currently living in a time of “entrepreneurial capitalism,” their first economy as adults will be “messy capitalism,” which he described as an economy of few guidelines and a process of firms starting, competing, failing, and growing.

An increasing number of young people are interested in entrepreneurship, Schramm said, noting that more than 70 percent of college students in the U.S. hope to become entrepreneurs and work for themselves, as opposed to the 85 percent of college students in Europe who express a desire to work for government.

“That’s creative human potential,” said Schramm, “and we make it better than anyone.”

The New Student Convocation is an annual event that invites a distinguished guest to campus to enlighten the UM community on the educational world students will encounter.