Giving it the college try

Licensed psychologist and former college professor Dr. Ronald Ogrodnik is going back to school.

Only this time Ogrodnik will take his entrepreneurial chops with him as the founder and president of Sarasota University. The startup school, a Florida-licensed online university with a corporate office in Lakewood Ranch, has eight students in its first cohort, which started in early September. The school offers three graduate programs: Two are Montessori-based education degrees and one is an M.B.A. degree with three concentrations.

“A lot of people talk about starting their own school,” says Sarasota University Admissions Director Ryan Ogrodnik, Ronald Ogrodnik's son. “Now he's living out his dream, starting a university.”