TALLAHASSEE, FL (WTXL) - Florida State University officials say they have received a $100 million donation to build a school dedicated to entrepreneurship.
The university made the announcement Friday morning.
The donation, from Jan Moran and the Jim Moran Foundation, is the largest gift made to the university in its history. It's also the biggest private gift to any public university in Florida history.
The board of trustees voted unanimously to name the school the "Jim Moran School of Entrepreneurship."
Once the school opens, university officials say it will be the largest entrepreneurship school in the U.S.
The gift will work in two ways: 1) to create the new school and 2) to continue the outreach of the existing Jim Moran Institute of Global Entrepreneurship.
Since 1995, the Institute has provided educated for business-minded students in counties in the Big Bend and South Florida.
"Now, we're going to be looking at going to other parts of the state, every corner of the state, from Jacksonville, Tampa, Orlando," said Michael Hartline, interim dean of FSU's College of Business.
The College of Business currently houses the entrepreneurship program, but school officials say the demand keeps growing.
"We are bursting at the seams with students who want to be entrepreneurial," said provost Sally McRorie. "They have great ideas. They don't necessarily know how to bring those ideas to market."
This year, the college had 200 students apply for just 40 slots in the program.
"It was really tough to turn away those students who really had their hopes and dreams set on starting their own businesses," Hartline said.
With the new school, the program can accept several more students and provide more resources.
Jim Moran didn't attend FSU, but his ties to the university go back to 1995, when he created the Institute. And after his death, his wife Jan and the foundation named after him continued to give.
"We've had this partnership with them for a while, but this is certainly bigger and better than anything we might've imagined," McRorie said.
The school will be housed in a building in downtown Tallahassee with a scheduled opening date on Aug. 8, 2018 -- which would have been the 100th birthday of Jim Moran.
