Pennsylvania state Sen. Greg Rothman visited Shippensburg University on Thursday for a Q&A event about entrepreneurship sponsored by the Commonwealth Foundation and hosted by the Charles H. Diller Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership and Innovation in Stewart Hall. 

Rothman serves in the 34th senatorial district in Pennsylvania, which includes Cumberland and Perry counties and northern Dauphin County. He previously was the former president and CEO of RSR Realtors, and under his leadership, the company grew to become one of the largest real estate businesses in Central Pennsylvania. 

The night started with an informal networking opportunity in which students, community members and business professionals could meet and discuss over hors d’oeuvres. 

Andrew Lewis, the president and CEO of the Commonwealth Foundation, brought everyone together to deliver the opening comments. He said “Entrepreneurship is the best kept secret of this country” and that Sen. Rothman is a leader and champion of small businesses that can help the state prioritize innovation’s future. 

Shippensburg University’s President Charles E. Patterson followed Lewis and gave the formal introduction for the event and introduced the crowd to Rothman and his interviewer for the night, Shelley Morissette, associate professor of entrepreneurship at the John L. Grove College of Business. 

Morrisette started the Q&A segment with Rothman by presenting the three topics for the night’s discussion, which were higher education, innovation and artificial intelligence. 

Regarding higher education, Rothman urged that “education is critical.” He believes that learning is a priority for every individual. He thought that the experience of going to a university in our system, however, is currently about teaching the younger generation how to live. He gave an anecdote about how his own parents sent him to university in 1985 to “grow up” and have a life experience.

He also said mentorship alongside the experiences he had were some of the most valuable things that he acquired from his time at university, not just the degree at the end. He did not want to discount the process of acquiring degrees entirely just to make a point that the experience was worth more. 

He explained to students in the audience that he believes the most valuable concept he has learned is that “there is no substitute for hard work. If you want to be successful as an entrepreneur, you have to work hard. It is a great substitute for smarts.” 

As the discussion moved to innovation, Rothman said that he believes the commonwealth is not friendly enough for innovators. He claimed that Pennsylvania has been the state involved in every major industry’s origin, including textiles, lumber, coal, gas and steel. 

“It is our state that has built this country” and now we can’t support innovation because of the demographic crisis,” he explained. 

According to Rothman, people between the ages of 22-64 have been moving out of the commonwealth at an alarming rate because they want to find a lower cost of living, lower taxes and better jobs and opportunities. This age range is critical because it represents the workforce and that “you don’t have to be an economist to know that if you don’t have people working, you don’t have an economy.”

The state is, however, gaining people above the age of 65 due to world-class healthcare, no tax income on retirement and great benefit programs for veterans. His main takeaway was that to innovate and become the home to the next round of ground-breaking American industries, the state needs to provide better opportunities to attract the 22-64 demographic back to Pennsylvania. The senator has a multitude of ideas and said he would be happy to discuss that further outside of the forum. 

The next possible industry that the state could foster led the conversation to the final topic for the night — artificial intelligence. 

Morrisette explained to the audience that artificial intelligence is not something to take lightly. He informed the group that there have only been three offsets by the military in history, which are areas where The country needs to win against foreign adversaries) — nuclear weapons, space and more recently, artificial intelligence. The country cannot currently win this race, however, because it lacks three things — energy, chips and networking abilities for CPUs. 

Rothman gave his thoughts on the AI race by explaining how America needs to make the chips and technology on its own. It is going to be important that the country protects and uses all the advancements and research that it has because “we have to win this.” 

The night ended with Rothman delivering gracious remarks and a thank you for allowing him to visit campus and share his thoughts.

“I love representing Shippensburg,” he said.

Morrisette also presented Rothman and Lewis with a gift of entrepreneurship swag.

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