From Campus Ministry to Entrepreneurship Center: How David Rose Builds Faith Into Every Venture

The Moment That Made Him Tear Up

David Rose II doesn't cry easily. By his own admission, he's not the mushy type. But there was one afternoon, standing in front of a classroom of middle schoolers, when he nearly lost it entirely.

A girl named Heaven — a student who had spent the better part of the year in disciplinary meetings for her language — stood up and presented her final project to the class. The assignment was to build a website. She had built one about her own transformation: how she came to faith, how she wanted to change the way she spoke, and who she was becoming. Every student in the room went quiet.

"All the preaching I did didn't touch that one moment that she had the floor."

That moment, Rose says, taught him something no business curriculum ever could: that the most powerful form of leadership isn't the kind with a title. It's the kind that flows from character — and invites others to step into something bigger than themselves.

It's a lesson he's been living out ever since, from a dorm room ministry idea to a full-time role shaping the next generation of entrepreneurs at the University of Memphis.

Roots That Run Deep

Rose grew up in Memphis, Tennessee, the second of four high-achieving siblings in a family that took both education and faith seriously. He's quick to point out that he's a third-generation college student — a fact he carries with visible pride. His sister Tiffany is a civil and architectural engineer with a hand in real estate and counseling. His brother Daniel is a bilingual pediatrician at Emory Hospital in Atlanta, a Vanderbilt graduate with a double major in Spanish and neuroscience. His younger sister Tia quietly became the first sibling to earn a graduate degree — a move, Rose laughs, that caught everyone off guard.

But beyond the credentials, what shaped Rose most was watching his family use their gifts in service of something eternal. Uncles who were pastors. Aunts in ministry. Cousins applying executive and administrative skills to the work of the church.

"I was really blessed at a young age to have a clear understanding of how godliness and righteousness apply with business and education. It doesn't mean you'll always make the best decisions — but it does mean you have a heart geared toward people, toward making a change, and not driven by greed or personal ambition."

That foundation didn't just inform his values. It set the direction for everything that came next.

Building Inner Light: Entrepreneurship as Ministry

When Rose arrived at the University of Memphis as a student, he looked around at the organizations available to him and felt a gap. Fraternities. Engineering societies. Academic clubs. But almost nothing focused on volunteering, community impact, or altruism. And none of them gave him the room to lead the way he believed God was calling him to lead.

So he built one.

Inner Light Outreach started as a registered student organization and grew into a fully incorporated 501(c)(3) nonprofit, funded by sponsorships, donations, and grants. In its first year, Rose recruited more than 100 volunteers. Eventually, the organization launched programs like Start Camp and Spark School — entrepreneurship competitions that awarded seed funding to winning student startups.

The organization ran programs from 2014 through roughly 2022, and what Rose learned along the way reads like an MBA in the field: customer discovery, strategic partnerships, grant management, board governance, and the hard truth that grant money doesn't last forever. It was, in his words, "a great launching pad."

When his new role as Assistant Director at the Crews Center for Entrepreneurship demanded his full attention, Inner Light stepped back. But the mission never stopped — it just found a new address.

Full Circle at the Crews Center

Today, Rose works out of the Crews Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Memphis, where he supports undergraduate students, graduate students, and faculty members on their entrepreneurial journeys. The center provides ideation support, customer discovery coaching, marketing guidance, and pitch preparation — the full architecture of venture development.

But Rose is building something new inside that structure: a faith-based startup program, already approved by his director, that will pair faith-driven entrepreneurs with advisors and mentors from their own religious communities. Christian students will be connected with leaders in the Christian faith. Muslim and Jewish students will have the same access within their own traditions.

"Gen Z has a heart and passion to connect back to faith. They don't want to hide it — they want to build with it."

One of his current students, Joshua Odom, is already doing exactly that. Odom runs Gospel of Peace Kicks, a brand using footwear to advance the gospel. Rose helped him secure funding, coached him through the development process, and — in true Rose fashion — showed up wearing one of Odom's products around campus.

That's not accidental. Rose has always believed that how you carry your faith matters as much as what you say about it.

Integrating Faith Without a Banner

When asked how he navigates the integration of faith in a public university setting, Rose points directly to Proverbs 3:5-6 — trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding, acknowledge Him in all your ways, and He will direct your paths.

For Rose, that's not a passive posture. It's an active one. He doesn't carry a metaphorical sign, but he doesn't hide either. He wears his convictions, literally and figuratively. He reads the room, listens for the Spirit's prompting in counseling sessions, and trusts that the right moment will come.

"I've preached the gospel in every job I've had. I don't think you have to walk around with a banner. But I'm also not afraid to walk in on a casual day wearing a gospel T-shirt."

His transparency about faith hasn't cost him professionally. If anything, it's opened doors — including the green light to launch a faith-based entrepreneurship track inside a public university's center. He credits that not to strategy, but to grace: "The Lord has always covered me."

The Advice Every Entrepreneur Needs to Hear

When Rose distills everything he's learned — from running a nonprofit to coaching hundreds of student founders — into a single principle, he lands on one image: iron sharpening iron.

He's made the mistake of going alone. Moving fast, cutting people off to keep the momentum up. It worked in the short run. It didn't last.

"If you want to go fast, go by yourself. If you want to go far — go with a group."

But it goes deeper than just finding a community. Rose also learned to get over personality differences in order to access wisdom. Some of the people we're least naturally drawn to carry exactly the skill set we need most. When he let God change his heart toward those people, he grew in ways he couldn't have engineered on his own.

And for the entrepreneurs who think their idea alone is enough? Rose has a word from the investor world that hits differently with a faith lens: investors don't invest in ideas. They invest in teams. Because somewhere on this planet, someone else has the same idea you do.

"But do they have the same calling? Do they have the same team? Do they have the same anointing? Those are totally different things."

That's the competitive advantage no pitch deck can manufacture — and no competitor can copy.

Come Find Him

David Rose is 36 years old, though most people guess far younger. He's built a nonprofit from scratch, helped fund student startups, watched a student named Heaven transform before his eyes, and is now quietly reshaping what faith-integrated entrepreneurship education can look like at a public university.

If you're in Memphis — student, alumni, community entrepreneur, or faith-driven founder — the door at the Crews Center for Entrepreneurship is open. Rose means that literally: stop by, get a tour, sit down for a coaching session. The address is 3618 Walker Avenue on the University of Memphis campus.

And if you're reading this from somewhere else? The principle still applies. Find your iron. Build your team. Acknowledge Him in all your ways.

The rest, as David Rose would tell you, has a way of working itself out.