COMMUNITY COLLEGE ENTREPRENEURSHIP - c.ymcdn.com · A Publication of NACCE Winter Spring 2014 COMMUNITY COLLEGE ENTREPRENEURSHIP WHAT’S ON NACCE’S 2014 AGENDA? Q&A WITH HEATHER

Winte r Spr ing 2014A Pub l i ca t ion o f NACCE

C O M M U N I T Y C O L L E G E

ENTREPRENEURSHIP

WHAT’S ON NACCE’S 2014 AGENDA? Q&A WITH

HEATHER VAN SICKLE

3COMMUNITY COLLEGE ENTREPRENEURSHIP WINTER/SPRING 2014 NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR COMMUNITY COLLEGE ENTREPRENEURSHIP NACCE.COM

Community colleges so rarely have the national spotlight, it’s important to make the most of the opportunities given to us.

In late 2012, I had the privilege of representing NACCE at a White House summit focused primarily on Higher Education, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship. As you can imagine, the national university presence was significantly larger than that of our system of community and state colleges, but I was thankful that the hosts, the Department of Commerce and the Economic Development Administration, had provided us with an opportu-nity to demonstrate the great potential our institutions hold as economic drivers, business incubators, and marketplaces ripe with entrepreneurial thought and ambition.

The panel I was selected for was entitled “University Technol-ogy Transfer & Industry Collaboration,” so I intentionally spoke of our national Presidents for Entrepreneurship Pledge, with par-ticular emphasis on commitments #3 (Engage in Industry Cluster Development) and #4 (Leverage both College and Community Assets to Spur Innovation and Job Creation). My remarks came as a bit of a revelation to my fellow university panelists because they challenged the traditional image of a community college and what it is capable of.

I spoke about how many of our colleges made conscious decisions over the past few decades to do more than react to the needs of our community. We’ve transformed our cultures. We committed to science, technology, education, and math opportu-nities before STEM was even a buzzword. And we’ve collectively planned and built millions of square feet of world-class facilities filled with advanced and emerging technologies. All of this was done with business and industry in mind, and as a result, our sys-tem of colleges has never been better positioned to support and shape industries like health science, biotechnology, agriculture, building construction, high-tech and digital media fields, manu-facturing, and many more.

Looking back, this philosophical shift originated out of need. Evolving industry needs, global competitiveness, technologi-cal advancements and a strong national desire to expand a knowledge-based economy all fed into this movement. Despite significant transformation on our end, our work wasn’t finite.

First, it’s our duty to spread the message of the new commu-nity college. Second, we have an obligation to continue down this path we’ve embarked on. The future we once prepared for is now the present; we must vigilantly be preparing for what’s next.

I believe that as a whole, we’re doing that. We’re reinvigorat-ing traditional industries with innovative technology; for exam-ple, providing an opportunity for agricultural leaders to explore biofuel crops alongside our students. We’re partnering with top businesses and research firms, working to give students applied

Taking Our Place at the Table

CHAIRMAN’S LETTER

research exposure and giving them exposure to advanced equip-ment and workplace environments. We’re continuing to push the boundaries of STEM, focusing on non-traditional programs like nuclear energy, nanotechnology, and the life sciences.

And as members of NACCE, we are perpetually striving for a stronger link between workforce development and entre-preneurial development, supporting small business through development centers and both traditional and virtual incubators, cultivating new business through an entrepreneur development institute, and incorporating entrepreneurial components into classroom environments where it would normally not exist.

The community college image has been forged by a reactive and very responsive approach to the needs of our communi-ties. This is still a time-honored and important mission, and one that we proudly carry forth today, but it is no longer the sole impression we want to give. As much as we must react to present local needs, it’s vital that we equally work from a more proactive model, attempting to anticipate the future needs of our commu-nity, state, and even nation.

We have to want to meet greater challenges. We have to want to be a foundation for economic prosperity and sustainability. We have to want to pull up to the table next to our university brethren when it comes to entrepreneurship and innovation.

We can begin the process of re-branding ourselves by believ-ing that we can have an impact beyond our localized service district.

Why? Because we can. Because America needs us to. Because there’s already a seat at the proverbial table waiting for us; we just have to be hungry enough for the future to all finally sit down.

Edwin Massey, Ph.DBoard Chair, National Association for Community College EntrepreneurshipPresident, Indian River State College

4 COMMUNITY COLLEGE ENTREPRENEURSHIP WINTER/SPRING 2014 NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR COMMUNITY COLLEGE ENTREPRENEURSHIP NACCE.COM

With our lead article in this issue, we take a look forward and learn what NACCE will be focusing on in 2014 in support of its members and the communities they serve. Entrepreneurship continues to be a very hot topic, and the ongoing lift in the economy that economists are predicting should bring new opportunities for students to pursue their entrepreneurial dreams and for existing business owners to build toward greater, long-term success.

The role of community colleges in supporting entrepreneurs and would-be entrepreneurs has never been more vital. This year has great potential for all involved in the work of making entrepreneurship and economic well being a reality for more people and more communities around our nation.

Please note that we have done a slight redesign of Community College Entrepreneurship in an attempt to make its appearance live-lier and more readable. We hope you enjoy our new look.

- Jeanne Yocum, [email protected]

Community College Entrepreneurship is published quarterly as a member benefit by the National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship. Articles from members may be submitted via e-mail to [email protected]. For Author Guidelines and information on advertising see page one of this journal or visit www.nacce.com/default.asp?page=Journal.

Publisher: Heather Van Sickle Editor: Jeanne Yocum Creative Director: Peter Ellis

To contact NACCE: e-mail [email protected] or call (413) 306-3131

FOR INFORMATIONAuthor Guidelines, archived issues and advertising rates for Community College Entrepreneurship are available at www.nacce.com/default.asp?page=Journal.

Editor’s Note WINTER/SPRING 2014

Board Chair Dr. Edwin MasseyPresidentIndian River State College

Treasurer Dr. Susan MayPresidentFox Valley Technical College

SecretaryCris ValdezPresidentEdison Community College

NACCE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Past ChairDr. Dan LarsonFormer PresidentCayuga Community College

J. Noah BrownPresident & CEOAssociation of Community College Trustees

Gail CarberryPresidentQuinsigamond Community College

Cem ErdemPresident & CEO, Augusoft, Inc.Founder, Project Skyway

John HarthorneFounder and CEOMassChallenge

Kathryn Jo MannesSenior Vice President for Workforce DevelopmentAmerican Association of Community Colleges

Monte PadenCIS/Business InstructorWest Hills Community College - Lemoore

NACCE serves two audiences: college administrators and faculty members. In recognition of this, we feature icons for each audience that will help steer readers towards news articles that should be of special interest to them. Of course, some articles contain content that is of interest to both groups, so they will feature both icons.

COLLEGE ADMINISTRATORSFACULTY MEMBERS


ENTREPRENEURIAL SKILLS Entrepreneurship, Personal Style, and CommunicationNEW LEARNING TOOLS Connect Your Passion: Entrepreneurship at Olds CollegeENTREPRENEURSHIP IN ACTION Entrepreneurial Dreams Take Root Through Community PartnershipMASTER MINDS The Importance of Community for SolopreneursACTION STEP #2 Pitch Competition Is a Tool for Growing Entrepreneur EngagementACTION STEPS #1 AND #4 A Partnership for Economic DevelopmentEXPERIENTIAL EXERCISE Social Networks as Resource NetworksHIGH SCHOOL LEARNING Entrepreneur Boot Camp for High School Students in Northwest ArkansasHP LIFE Why I Am Using HP LIFE in My Community College ClassroomRESOURCES Add a Dash of Creativity to the Topic of Innovation

THE NEXT FRONTIER Generating Revenues Through Fee-based ServicesEXPERIENTIAL LEARNING NACCE FastPitch Competition Hits a HomerunEXPERIENTIAL LEARNING Direct Selling Companies Make Great Student-run MicroenterprisesNACCE RESOURCES NACCE Summits Drive Economic DevelopmentPROGRAM BUILDING An EIR? What’s That? I Want One! (I Think)

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT Dr. Janice H. Gilliam

WHAT’S ON NACCE’S 2014 AGENDA? Q&A WITH HEATHER VAN SICKLE

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CONTENTS

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In December, HP LIFE visited NACCE member Catawba Valley Community College, in Hickory, NC, to film a minidocumentary about how HP LIFE is being used in the classroom and beyond. (L to R): State Director, Small Business Center Network, Dr. George Millsaps, Jr.; CVCC President Dr. Garrett D. Hinshaw; Darcie L. Tumey, Business Administration Instructor, CVCC; NACCE Ambassador for HP LIFE.

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What is the focus of NACCE for 2014?

Van Sickle: This year we will build on the idea that entrepreneurship is a way of being for community colleges. Provid-ing students with the idea of starting their own business changes the way they perceive their learning and also the way educators perceive opportunities and ways of engaging the community in their instruction.

We will also build on the idea that entrepreneurship is the foundation of ev-erything, cutting across all programs and areas of study. Entrepreneurial colleges must provide the space for innovation and exploration of creating value through experimentation that will lead to new venture creation for faculty, students, and the greater community.

Another NACCE focus will be helping our members expand the support they give to microbusiness – both start-ups and existing businesses – in their local communities. Our member colleges have many resources that could be of value to people running microbusinesses as they work to create new jobs and add vibrancy and stability to their community.

How has the definition of an entrepreneurial college changed over NACCE’s 12 years?

Van Sickle: Early on, an entrepreneur-ial college seemed to have two definitions depending on who you were talking to. For many presidents, it meant the col-lege’s ability to raise money. Fundrais-ing. On the other hand, to more frontline individuals, (faculty, some administra-tors, non-credit areas) it meant a college that was active in the entrepreneurship space, creating entrepreneurship centers, incubators, and credit programming.

There continues to be confusion on the definition; however, we define the entre-preneurial college much more holistically than either of those two descriptions: An entrepreneurial college is one that has a culture requiring an entrepreneurial mindset for all who work at the college, one that takes advantage of what they have and explores how they can leverage that for the best value creation in their community.

People with this mindset encourage ownership and leadership of all areas with an attention to overall customer experience, whether the “customer” is their students, the community, or even themselves. They focus on the founda-tional elements: the right people, the right culture, to increase the talent base in their community and add value that only the community college can in the

entrepreneurship ecosystem. This culture results in an environment fertile for start-ing and sustaining successful businesses in the greater community. In essence, this holistic definition encompasses both of the above original definitions.

To be entrepreneurial institutions, community colleges need tools to assess themselves. This is why we began the Presidents for Entrepreneurship Pledge and are embarking on framing the action steps that make up the pledge into an as-sessment tool that will allow the colleges to answer the question: How entrepre-neurial are we? A scorecard will indicate to the colleges what they are already doing well. When they identify the gaps, they will be better prepared on where they need to improve.

How do you plan on continuing the effectuation or entrepreneurial method research in NACCE’s work for 2014?

Van Sickle: Dr. Saras Sarasvathy’s work on effectuation gave us a defined way of discussing what an entrepre-neurial college can be. We plan on using Sarasvathy’s research, which she derived by interviewing and working with many successful entrepreneurs and then iden-tifying replicable, teachable patterns in how entrepreneurs are “entrepreneurial.” Colleges can have that entrepreneurial mindset by starting with who they are and what they know (the first step of the entrepreneurial method) and begin to create new things to grow their local economy and spur job creation in their communities. (For a full overview of effectuation (aka the entrepreneurial method), see Fall/Winter 2013 issue of Community College Entrepreneurship.)

EDITOR’S NOTE:

WITH THE ECONOMY TURNING AROUND, 2014 PROMISES TO BE AN EXCITING YEAR FOR ENTREPRENEURS, WOULD-BE ENTREPRENEURS AND THE COMMUNITY COLLEGES THAT SUPPORT THEM. WE CAUGHT UP WITH NACCE CEO AND PRESIDENT HEATHER VAN SICKLE RECENTLY TO SEE WHAT 2014 HOLDS FOR THE NATION’S LEADING ORGANIZATION FOCUSED ON PROMOTING ENTREPRENEURSHIP THROUGH COMMUNITY COLLEGES.

WHAT’S ON NACCE’S 2014 AGENDA? Q&A WITH HEATHER VAN SICKLE


THE OVERARCHING TREND IS INTEGRATING ENTREPRENEURSHIP CROSS CAMPUS AND NOT JUST IN THE CREDIT PROGRAMMING. FACULTY ARE REALIZING THAT FOR STUDENTS TO BE FULLY EDUCATED MEANS RECOGNIZING THE VALUE OF THEIR SKILLS AND HOW STUDENTS CAN SOLVE PROBLEMS USING THE FRAME OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP.

What trend is NACCE seeing among its members and elsewhere when it comes to how entrepreneurship is being taught – both in the classroom and outside the classroom?

Van Sickle: The overarching trend is integrating entrepreneurship cross campus and not just in the credit pro-gramming. Faculty are realizing that for students to be fully educated means recognizing the value of their skills and how students can solve problems using the frame of entrepreneurship. The more students are exposed to problem recogni-tion and creating solutions with their skill sets, the more suited they will be as employees--initially as they gain experi-ence--and then ultimately as persons who start companies. Students will go in and out of employment/job creation through-out their lives, so the more exposure they have to entrepreneurship during their educational process, the more prepared they will be when they engage in the world of work.

Let’s talk about intrapreneurs, which is a growing focus for NACCE. How can workforce development programs and entrepreneurship programs work together to create workers who understand how to help their entrepreneurial employers thrive?

Van Sickle: Integrating the entrepre-neurial method and lean startup prin-ciples such as Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is a simple way to encourage employees to act as entrepreneurs for their employers. Providing students with that real world experience while being mentored through the process will create not only skilled workers, but very desir-able workers who understand how their actions and ideas impact the bottom line.

An important part of growing entrepreneurship in a community is supporting existing

businesses. What are some of the trends you’re seeing in this area among NACCE members and beyond?

Van Sickle: Community col-leges are in an optimal position because of culture and how they were created to be the low cost, easy access, long-term, short-term, now, future, all those things, for existing businesses. But the problem is that entrepreneurs in their communities often don’t see them this way. Why? In large part because there hasn’t been ongoing communication.

A trend we see is that of col-leges really getting to know their overall existing business community much more intimately. What are the needs that these businesses have that the community colleges can fill? Is it access to equip-ment? Mentorship? A partner that can convene like-minded individuals for them to interact with? Specialized just-in-time learning on things such as understanding their financials, marketing and sales tips, etc.? What are ways that the colleges can engage these businesses and bring them into the discussions about decisions col-leges make?

NACCE has had success expanding its partnerships over the past several years and is now working closely with organizations like Sam’s Club and HP. What have you learned from these relationships that might help community colleges as they work to build partnerships in their communities in support of entrepreneurship?

Van Sickle: The obvious role of the community college has been a clear connection between workforce training needs of large companies and community colleges being used to fill that need. This comes with an identifiable market (exist-ing workers needing additional training), a customer (the corporation) and the

vendor (the community college). That is pretty A-B stuff. However, as the work-force flattens and individuals become more and more “You, Inc.,” the colleges need to adapt by determining ways to bring these individuals in and contribute to their continuous improvement.

This change in the workforce caused us to look at corporations in different ways. We see organizations like Sam’s Club as large conveners of lots of indi-viduals having their own businesses. In organizations like HP, we see companies recognizing the value of entrepreneurs to their own business and to the larger, global economy, something that is impor-tant for all large companies. The more people are exposed to starting a compa-ny, being trained to shore up their busi-nesses, etc., the more qualified the talent pool becomes that larger companies will be able to draw from both for employees (intrapreneurs) and for smaller com-panies in their supply chain (startups innovating more quickly than the larger companies can and independently owned small businesses that provide specific needs for the company).

Community colleges can extend the way they look at corporations in their community (and their national/global reach) through both the lens of their workforce needs (employees) and overall needs (supply chain management, in-novation from startups). This will allow fertile conversations to uncover ways that community colleges and corpora-tions can work together in increasingly impactful ways.


Entrepreneurship, Personal Style, and Communication

ENTREPRENEUIAL SKILLS

By George P. Betts, D. B. A., G. R. I., InstructorSouthern Arkansas University Tech, Camden, Arkansas

The current global business environ-ment presents unique challenges for indi-viduals, and those individuals’ integrated communication skills (Betts, 2008). Entrepreneurs, involved in the entrepre-neurial process, must effectively commu-nicate with a myriad of diverse individu-als, often in stochastic environments, frequently imparting and/or acquiring essential knowledge or information. When communicating, the entrepreneur could use behavioral indicators, or social cues to better understand and communi-cate with other individuals. This article introduces the principles of personal style as a methodology that could en-hance the entrepreneur’s comprehension of these behavioral indicators, or social cues, used when individuals’ communi-cate.

Entrepreneurs are individuals or groups of individuals that have vision to recognize, develop, and capitalize oppor-tunity. Entrepreneurs possess the creativ-ity to turn that recognized opportunity into reality, and the self-confidence, and tenacity to sustain a business based upon that opportunity. An entrepreneur must continually engender interpersonal ef-fectiveness and possess the ability to suc-cessfully communicate within our global society to actuate, market, and sustain the entrepreneurial process.

In the entrepreneurial process, there is a focus “on the recognition, evaluation, and exploitation of opportunity” (Chelly, 2009, p. 1). Individuals, and teams of individuals, may not always recognize an opportunity (Shane, 2003). Shepherd and De Tienne, (2001) suggested that prior knowledge, and Uucbasaran, Westhead, Wright, and Brinks, (2003) suggested that entrepreneurial past experience were “important factors for opportunity identification” (as cited in Chelly, p. 2). Shane, (2003) proposed that an individ-ual’s ability to recognize opportunity is a function of that individual’s knowledge,

experience, and social process. Chelly, based upon the works of: Hayek, 1945; Ronstadt, 1988; Venkataraman, 1997; and Shane, 2003, surmised “each person’s idiosyncratic prior knowledge creates a ‘knowledge corridor’ that allows him/her to recognize certain opportunities, but not others” (p. 3). Chelly suggested that this corridor of knowledge could lead to the creation of a domain in which information is extracted, collected, and cognitively processed to facilitate entre-preneurial decisions. The entrepreneur’s comprehension and communication of these entrepreneurial decisions and these knowledge corridor components comprises the entrepreneur’s domain of knowledge, which can be conveyed to others.

ABILITY TO COMMUNICATE IS KEY

Knowledge of a domain’s content al-lows interpretation of information within that domain and facilitates action, based upon that domain knowledge (Shane & Venkatamaran, 2000). Historical experience and knowledge of a subject are needed to identify entrepreneurial opportunities (Kaisha & Gilad, 1991). His-torical experiences “include work experi-ences, entrepreneurial experiences, and associative experiences” (Chelly,2009, p.5), that combine with social process, and education to produce the entre-preneurs’ aggregate entrepreneurial experience background. It is likely that the more entrepreneurially experienced an individual is, the more confident in the entrepreneurial process that individual might be (Chelly; Gray, 2007). No matter how knowledgeable and experienced the entrepreneur might be, the ability to communicate the culmination of those experiences and knowledge, with regard to a developing opportunity is the engine that drives the entrepreneurial process.

Knowledge of social styleSM can enhance an individual’s ability to com-municate and interact with others (Betts, 2008; Snavely & McNeill, 2008; Merrill & Reid, 1981). Social styleSM can facilitate a better understanding of communication and behavior (Snavely & McNeill). The individual who knows and understands his or her personal social styleSM is better equipped, in a social or business environ-ment, to interact effectively with others (Betts, 2008).

An individual’s personal social styleSM is specifically how other people perceive that individual’s common, day-to-day, ac-tions and reactions to stimuli. The social style modelTM and social styleSM indicators were developed and used by Merrill and Reid (1976), and are currently used by the TRACOM Group (2013). The TRACOM model relates to an individual’s assertive-ness and responsiveness.

The TRACOM model was adapted, with TRACOM permission, to indicate four personal styles, Autocratic, Artistic, Ami-able, and Analytical (Betts, 2008). Each of these personal styles has a different mindset of behavioral reactions to stimu-lus, pressure, anxiety, anger, and pain. The style-aware individual can become keenly aware of these mindset reactions, the environment in which they exist, and the probable reactions they will produce. Recognizing and properly reacting to the probable reactions of other individuals could benefit the entrepreneur when communicating and interacting with those individuals.

To become style aware and develop the ability to recognize and property react to the probable reaction of other individuals, the entrepreneur must first understand his or her self. Bass (1990) stated, “how people think, feel, and act [affects the ability]…of people to learn from others, and from their environ-ments” (p. 150). Personal style awareness can help facilitate self and environmental


understanding. Understanding one’s self can ameliorate understanding when com-municating with others, and restructure cognition of the multi-various environ-ments and social scenarios surrounding that communication.

AWARENESS OF PERSONAL STYLE

Environments and social scenarios are driven by individuals’ interpersonal interactions. These interpersonal interac-tions can be better understood by a per-sonal-style-aware individual based upon individuals’ social clues and social ques. These social clues and social queues exist in face-to-face communication environ-ments, and in non-face-to-face communi-cation environments such as telephone conversations, and the Internet. Sensi-tivity to these clues and queues can be enhanced by knowledge of an individual’s own personal style, and of the personal style/s of communication partners.

Personal style relates to an individual’s assertiveness and responsiveness styled in a four-quadrant model. The horizontal axis, moving left to right, denotes degrees of assertiveness, and the vertical axis, moving top to bottom, denotes degrees of responsiveness. Assertive individuals, top and bottom quadrants, to the right, are controlling, fast acting, risk tolerant telling individuals. Responsive individu-als, bottom left and right quadrants, are less controlling, undisciplined, emotional individuals. Personal style is a function of how the preponderance of individuals reacting with an individual perceives that individual personally.

Individual’s personal styles include au-tocratic, artistic, amiable, and analytical individuals. Autocratic individuals, upper right quadrant, are get-it-done, decisive, determined, domineering, and often abrasive individuals. Artistic individuals, lower right quadrant, are enthusiastic, dramatic, gregarious, emotional, and often manipulative individuals. Ami-able individuals, lower left quadrant, are respectful, retiring, pliable, supportive, often awkward individuals. Analytical individuals, upper left quadrant, are seri-ous, organized, fact and figure oriented, and often introverted individuals.

A BEHAVIORAL TOOLWhen stimulated, placed under pres-

sure, stress, or pain, or when angry, each personal style quadrant will react in a sort of a “Z” pattern, moving to the adja-cent right or left quadrant, then the upper or lower quadrant and finally to the di-

agonal quadrant. This normal re-action is termed walking through the “A’s.” Individuals in adjacent quadrants are likely to work well with one another. However, individuals in diagonal quadrants are abrasive to one another, and not likely to work well together. One can then surmise, when under pressure, stress, or pain, or when angry, there is potential for actions and interactions that are destructive to the social process, to understanding, and, therefore, to the communication process.

When communicating or interacting with other individuals, the personal-style-aware entrepreneur can use personal style as a behavioral tool. Using personal style as a behavioral tool, the entrepreneur can develop the ability to change his or her personal style to increase the comfort level of communi-cation partners, and the mutual under-standing of the communication process and purpose.

The personal-style-aware entrepre-neur is better equipped to develop and communicate a knowledge corridor. A more complete understanding of oneself, of the communication environment, of the communication process, of the communication purpose, of the entre-preneur’s knowledge corridor, and of an entrepreneur’s communication partner/s can enhance the entrepreneur’s interper-sonal effectiveness. More interpersonally effective individuals are perceived, by their peers to be more emotionally intel-ligent individuals. Personal-style-aware, emotionally intelligent entrepreneurs are more effective entrepreneurs, adaptive and innovative in the entrepreneur-ial process, efficiently communicating knowledge corridors, domains, and entre-preneurial decisions to others.

Contact: [email protected]

REFERENCESBass, B. M. (1990) Bass and Stogdill’s

handbook of leadership: Theory, research & managerial applications (3rd ed.). New York, NY: The Free Press.

Betts, G. P. (2008). Online personal style assessment: Style awareness for online interpersonal effectiveness and im-proved emotional intelligence. Ann Arbor, Mi: Proquest.

Chelly, A. (2009). Opportunity based-view in entrepreneurship and the role of prior knowledge and past experiences. International Council for Small Business (ICSB), World Conference Proceedings: Washington, D. C. Retrieved November 4,

2009, from the ProQuest database.Gray, F. (2007, November 21-27). En-

trepreneurship: Turn off your auto pilot. New Pittsburgh Courier (City Addition), 96(47), C1-C2. Retrieved November 4, 2009 from the ProQuest database.

Kaisha, S. & Gilad, B. (1991). Charac-teristics of opportunities search of en-trepreneurs versus executives: Sources, interests, general, alertness. Journal of Business Venturing, 6(1), 45-61. Retrieved November 4, 2009, from the ProQuest database.

Merrill, D. W., & Reid, R. H. (1976). Style awareness simplified: An overview. Denver, CO.: Personal Predictions and Research, Incorporated.

Merrill, D. W., & Reid, R. H. (1984). Personal styles and effective performance. Boca Raton, FL: CRCPress.

Shane, S. (2003). A general theory of entrepreneurship, the individual opportu-nity nexus. Gensanda House, U. K.: Edward Elgar Publishing.

Shane, S., & Venkatamaran S. (2000). The promise of entrepreneurship as a field of research. Academy of Management Review 25:1, p. 217-226).

Shepherd, D. A., Detienne, D. R. (2005, January). Prior knowledge, potential financial reqard, and opportunity iden-tification. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice. Retrieved November 4, 2009 from the Emerald database.

Snavely, W. B., & McNeill, J. D. (2008, February). Comunicator style and social style:Testing a theoretical interface. Journal of Leadership and Organization, 3-6. Retrieved July 14, 2008, from the EBSCOhost database.

The TRACOM Group (20130. Social style. Available at: www.tracomcorp.com.

Uucbasaran, D., Westhead, P., Wright, M., & Binks, M. (2003, Winter). Does entrepreneurial experience influence opportunity identification? The Journal of Private Equity, 7-14. Retrieved November 4, from the ProQuest database.

RECOGNIZING AND PROPERLYREACTING TO THE PROBABLEREACTIONS OF OTHERINDIVIDUALS COULD BENEFITTHE ENTREPRENEUR WHENCOMMUNICATING ANDINTERACTING WITH THOSEINDIVIDUALS.


Connect Your Passion: Entrepreneurship at Olds College

Students are “connecting with their passion” at Olds College. When you come to Olds College, you’ll find students and instructors engaged in collaborative projects using iPads, in the classroom and in the outdoors. You’ll be on the campus with the highest bandwidth per student in Canada. You’ll see students learning about and “feeling” what it’s like to be an entrepreneur by using an iPad applica-tion that is a gamified course.

Olds College is known for practical, hands-on learning. The iPad is the new hands-on way to learn. “We think the iPad is the best mobile learning device available today,” comments Dr. Jason Dewling, vice president of Academic and Research at Olds College. “Olds College will be the first fully integrated iPad learning environment in Canada. We are future-proofing the college for the digital generation. ”

To support the mobile technology, Olds College installed 1,000 megabit high speed Internet and upgraded its Wi-Fi. The college now has more bandwidth per student than any other post-secondary in Canada.

INTEGRATED AND INSPIRATIONAL

One of the important components of the college’s mobile strategy is an entrepreneurship iPad app called Spirit of Entrepreneurship. This is the first comprehensive course delivered on an iPad app through a video game experi-ence. Students learn to start and run their own lemonade stand empire in a social and mobile environment. This course offers students the opportunity to learn and apply entrepreneurship concepts by participating in a fun, dynamic and digital

learning environment. Beginning in Sep-

tember 2013, all new students entering Olds College, planning to graduate with a longer-term certificate, diploma, or applied degree, were required to complete this gamified entrepreneur-ship course as a gradua-tion requirement.

At Olds College, entrepreneurship is integrated across all disciplines. We want to provide students with an entrepreneurial mindset and attitude that will serve them well, whether they go on to be an em-ployee or start their own business.

Entrepreneurship at Olds College is hands-on – learned through the entrepreneurship

app and also through on-campus learn-ing enterprises where students practice production as well as business skills. Examples of our learning enterprises in-clude Production Horticulture, BrewMas-ter, and Meat Processing. Students are immersed in these learning enterprises to truly understand what it feels like to own the role of an entrepreneur.

Thirdly, entrepreneurship at Olds Col-lege is world-changing and inspirational. We want to teach young people about entrepreneurship, marketing, and phi-lanthropy so they can go out and change the world. We are developing a certificate in this area and have implemented a social entrepreneurship project with the Dominican Republic. With help from the student Entrepreneurs Club, the college is importing green coffee beans from the Dominican Republic, roasting them in Alberta, and selling bagged coffee online, through stores and at events. Ninety per-cent of profits from this venture go back to support education for coffee farmers and their kids. This provides students a hands-on experience with social entre-preneurship.

SPIRIT OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP

The new Spirit of Entrepreneurship app is one of the strengths of our en-trepreneurship activities. Developed by two Calgary-based companies, GoForth Institute and Robots and Pencils, in part-nership with Olds College, this project started with a few questions – what if we took relevant, real world, competency-based educational content, added ele-ments of video gameplay and deployed an entire course of material on mobile devices? What if we applied the strate-gies that make video games addictive to education? Would students be more engaged? Would they learn more?

NEW LEARNING TOOLS

By Toby Williams, Director, Entrepreneurship and International DevelopmentOlds College, Olds, Alberta, Canada

Screen shot from Spirit of Entrepreneurship app used at Olds College.

Continued on page 16


Generating Revenues Through Fee-based Services

Community colleges are increas-ingly pressed to become economically self-sufficient and in the case of entrepre-neurship centers, practice what we teach. Fees can be a revenue source for both direct services and for access. Here are

EIGHT creative ideas to explore as you

become pioneers in the journey to

economic inde-pendence.

1. Loan & grant packag-

ing services (SBIRs) can be

contracted through

your center by connecting a cadre of subcontractors with your clients for a percentage of the fees they charge for the services. You can also get funds through bank community reinvestment funds to help complete their loan applications, which saves banks time in handholding.

2. Minority supplier consulting services (SDB, Veterans, Disabled). You can charge client businesses for helping them become designated as a minority-owned business with the government or major corporations. You can also connect with the major companies and see if they need access to potential sub-contractors and will sponsor your program.

3. Non-credit training. Work with

your college workforce training center. They focus on the employee; you serve the business owner training needs. A prime example is QuickBooks. The workforce side can train staff to use the software, but you can sell training on how a business can set it up and use it for managerial accounting. This can carry a higher price tag than workforce training.

4. Leverage your space. Can you offer virtual office space and price out the use of your copier, color laser printer, fax, no-tary public service, conference room, etc. that a home-based or fledgling business could use to appear more professional?

THE NEXT FRONTIER

By Christine Mollenkopf-Pigsley, NACCE Curriculum & Training Fellow 2013


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Entrepreneurial Dreams Take Root Through Community Partnership

Brian Sundberg and Presley Alex-ander’s plant-start business, Sundberg Growers, has taken root in California’s Sierra Nevadas and is nicely blos-soming into a successful entre-preneurial venture thanks to an innovative partnership between Feather River College (FRC) and the Sierra Intensive Farmer Train-ing (SIFT) program.

Sundberg Growers got its start in 2012 when Brian and Presley took advantage of an opportunity to provide plant starts for a natu-ral food cooperative that had lost its supplier. The company, which provides the community with organically grown vegetable starts selected for the region’s short growing season, quickly expanded to small-scale farming.

Within a year, Sundberg Grow-ers was supplying plant starts and its own organically grown produce to several local food markets. One of the crops grown is quinoa, the Andean “superfood” whose demand is skyrocketing. (Between 2006 and 2013, quinoa crop prices have tripled.) Sund-berg Growers is one of only a handful of domestic farmers to commercially grow quinoa and expects to increase its plant-ings to meet growing market demand.

TURNING DREAMS INTO REALITY

Brian had long been interested in community farming, but his dream began to solidify during a nine-week entre-preneurship program at FRC, which is located in Quincy, CA. “The very first class was all about fleshing out your business idea, so it gave us the chance to polish it up and really begin to focus,” says Brian. “We fine-tuned what we had in mind and got specific about our business goals. Our original plan was to target local food

stores, but the vision grew to include restaurants and community-supported agricultural groups.”

FRC offers Entrepreneurship Certifi-cation programs in Agriculture Entrepre-neurship, Ranch Entrepreneurship, Allied Health, Child Care, and a number of other concentrations. The certification program features courses in Introductory Entre-preneurship, Entrepreneurial Marketing, Financial Management, and Business Plan Writing. Presley took FRC’s certificate program in Entrepreneurial Planning, which meshed well with her background in produce management.

COMMUNITY SUPPORT Brian’s instructor and mentor at

FRC was Amy Schulz, director of Career Technical Education and Economic Work-force Development. She told him about SIFT, a new federally funded partnership program with Plumas Rural Services. SIFT helps train new farmers in commu-nity farming. Farmers in the program are

required to complete FRC’s certificate in Agricultural Entrepreneurship program in addition to SIFT’s agricultural courses.

Through SIFT, Brian and Presley received training in sustainable farming and assistance with finding af-fordable farmland to lease. “For a start-up to achieve actual production in its first year is impressive,” says Schulz. “Brian and Presley are a perfect example of entrepreneurs going all in and tapping into valuable community resources like SIFT.”

“We modeled SIFT to fo-cus on fewer people and help them at deeper levels,” says Elizabeth Powell, coordina-tor of SIFT. “Our approach with Sundberg Growers was to get land, irrigation, and

the supplies they needed to launch while keeping an eye on their long-term goals. Sundberg Growers is a model for how this type of support directly benefits the small farmer in the local community.”

While at FRC, Brian and Presley entered into a countywide business plan competition and won, using the award proceeds for much-needed start-up sup-plies. There’s no question they benefited from their experiences with both FRC and SIFT. “It’s a very good intersection of the entrepreneurial training offered at FRC and the use of an exciting new commu-nity resource such as SIFT,” says Schulz.

A BOUNTIFUL FIRST YEAR Meanwhile, plant starts weren’t the

only things flourishing during Sundberg Growers’ inaugural year. Brian and Pres-ley’s business relationship had bloomed

ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN ACTION



NACCE FastPitch Competition Hits a Homerun

The first-ever NACCE FastPitch com-petition, held at NACCE2013 in Charlotte, was truly a big hit. Our event provided student entrepreneurs with the oppor-tunity to demonstrate the benefits of a community college education and pres-ent their idea for the next great business concept.

FastPitch contestants pro-gressed through three phases of competition. The first step was to prepare an executive summary of their business concept. Contes-tants who made it to the second phase of the competition were asked to make a short elevator pitch (approximately 5 minutes) to a group of business leaders. The pitch allowed students to sell their business idea in a friendly, yet competitive, atmosphere.

The judges’ scores from the Executive Summary and the Elevator Pitch segments of the competition were compiled and the “Final Four” contestants were selected to make one last “FastPitch” to our conference at-tendees. Our judges had a difficult challenge because there were so many creative business ideas, but the stiff com-petition produced an outstanding group of winners.

Michelle Bernard of Catawba Valley Community College won our inaugural event. She presented her Spellcast Farm business concept, which involves devel-

oping an integrated farm-ing model using meat

rabbits and market vegetables.

Sabrina Brooks of Catawba Valley Community

College came in second. Ms.

Brooks presented

her business plan for A Peaceful Pas-sage Transportation Service that will offer a necessary, required service at the end of one’s life by providing safe, reliable, and professional services in transporting the deceased to the proper location (funeral home, mortuaries,

medical examiner offices, airport, etc.). She also was a member of the 2013 SkillsUSA Gold Medal winning team in Entrepreneurship.

In third place was Joyce Mallery of Dakota County Technical College. Her business is DJ Bungee Thing-a-ma-Jigs. It manufactures re-usable, eco-friendly, shock-cord fasteners. The product secures and binds multiple things in multiple ways and won’t harm the item being secured or the environment. Joyce was the member of the 2012 SkillsUSA Gold Medal winning team in Entrepreneurship.

Paul Fuselier of Catawba Valley Community College finished in fourth place. He hopes to create a full-service Truck Stop that will offer more services

than traditional truck stops and become a destination stop for truckers travelling through North Carolina.

The competition gave our students valuable experience in writing an execu-tive summary and then turning it into a business concept pitch, which will be

beneficial to them in any business career. We had four official winners, but all of our competitors demonstrated the skills and at-titude necessary to be a success-ful business owner.

Michelle Ber-nard’s thoughts highlighted the benefits of the FastPitch competition for the student entrepreneurs. She said, “It was

an amazing experience, and I learned an incredible amount from the competition. FastPitch helped me to look at my busi-ness in a new light and was instrumental in moving it forward.”

We are excited about the prospects for an even more successful FastPitch competition in 2014. We also hope that this year’s event will encourage indi-vidual community colleges to sponsor their own FastPitch type competition to foster student entrepreneurship within their college community. Finally, we are very grateful for the generous support of the John E. and Jeanne T. Hughes Founda-tion and its director, John Hennessey, for sponsoring our 2013 NACCE FastPitch competition.


EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING

By R. Gary Muller, Business Programs Department Head & NACCE FellowCatawba Valley Community College, Hickory, North Carolina

The winners of the NACCE FastPitch competition (front row, l. to r.) Paul Fuselier, Joyce Mallery, Sabrina Brooks and Michelle Bernard, are shown with (back row, l. to r.) Dr. Garrett Hinshaw, president of Catawba Valley Community College; John Hennessey, director of the John E. and Jeanne T. Hughes Foundation, which sponsored the competition; NACCE President and CEO Heather Van Sickle, and NACCE Fellow Gary Muller.


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Powered by the entrepreneurial spirit, the direct selling industry enables individuals to reach their goals, no mat-ter how big or small.

The Direct Selling Entrepreneur Program (DSEP)—created by the Direct Selling Education Foundation in partnership with the National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship—is a 10-module, 30-hour, non-credit curriculum package that focuses on the entrepreneurship skills that are both universal to small businesses and spe-cific to direct selling.

Today’s direct selling industry is vibrant and growing, rep-resenting more $30 million in annual sales and nearly 16 million direct sellers. DSEP gives community colleges a new way to pave the pathway to entrepreneurship for those in their communities looking to create their own futures.

For more information, contact DSEF’s Chief Marketing & Development Officer Nancy Laichas at (202) 416-6438 or [email protected].

www.directsellingentrepreneur.comwww.facebook.com/DirectSellingEntrepreneur

THE DIRECT SELLING ENTREPRENEURPROGRAM

DIRECT SELLING EDUCATION FOUNDATION

Standing Up for Consumers. Championing Ethical Entrepreneurship.


Direct Selling Companies Make Great Student-run Microenterprises

As entrepreneurship educators, we want to provide our students with the powerful experience of running a busi-ness. We have heard the amazing success stories from our colleagues who have set up various student-run businesses on their campuses. However, the whole idea can be intimidating, and many of us are trying to figure out how to go about this initiative. I wanted to share with you what I did on my campus in the event that it may help some of you in the future.

It all started last fall when I was ap-proached by Mike Roy, an executive of a direct selling company – SendOutCards.com. The service is so cool that I listened intently to the pitch. The concept of the company is simple – it provides an easy way to send out real paper cards to your contacts through regular U.S. postal mail. It can reduce the task of sending out holiday cards or promotional mailings to

minutes. The cards can be personalized with

pictures, QR codes to play audio, and more.

In my case, Mike Roy of-fered to mentor

my students so we could

get started with

SendOutCards as a student-run business. Since I am the faculty adviser of our Phi Beta Lambda business club on campus, I approached the club to see if they were interested in starting the business. After a conference call and walk-through of the capabilities of the service, one officer was really excited about the possibilities. He took a leadership role and pitched the idea to the business club. The officers voted on it and unanimously agreed to move forward on the new business.

QUICK STARTThe logistics of setting up the busi-

ness were simple. Once we got approval from the student officers, we met with our VP of Finance, and it was decided that the business would be set up using our Faculty Student Association’s tax ID number since it is part of a student club. All we needed to do was set up a bank ac-count under this tax ID number with me (as the faculty adviser) as an authorized signer to the account. Because we are a non-profit institution, we also provided the tax exempt form to SendOutCards.com so we did not get charged tax when we purchased items. Whenever custom-ers purchase through our site, we do not need to worry about sales tax, since SendOutCards.com takes care of this. We get a percentage of each sale and bonuses

as applicable, which get automatically deposited into our checking account.

The creation of the business took about two weeks. So where do we go from here? The first step is to have the club officers go through the free training offered through SendOutCards.com. This training will get them ready to market and sell to customers. We will have discussions about how to build and man-age customer relationships, how to keep track of the monetary aspects of owning a business, and more.

Direct selling businesses such as SendOutCards.com offer a great option to set up student-run microenterprises with low (or no) start-up costs, very few ongo-ing expenses and minimal red tape. There are many to choose from, but be sure to choose a reputable firm by checking on the Direct Selling Association’s website (www.dsa.org). If anyone is interested in speaking to one of my students about our SendOutCards business, please email me at [email protected].

EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING

By Amy L. Valente, PMP, MBA, NACCE Fellow and Business Faculty Cayuga Community College, Auburn, New York

The gamified entrepreneurship course app starts out simply: students buy and sell lemonade stand inventory to the citi-zens of The Blands. They are encouraged to move through 12 modules of compre-hensive content, through mini-games and awards. As they progress through the content, more activities are unlocked in

the game. As they become more skilled, they are able to run their stands more effectively and, hopefully, more profit-ably. Students are required to assess their business environment, make financial decisions, and apply marketing strategies within the game itself. They are also able to interact with each other, review slide

notes and even ask an instructor a ques-tion, in real-time, right from the app.

By improving our bandwidth, focus-ing on the digital learner, and gamifying entrepreneurship curriculum, we have helped students connect their passion.


Connect Your Passion Continued from page 10

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Acting entrepreneurially to supportentrepreneurship on Florida’s Research Coast

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From Ideas...

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Energizing the Economy


The Importance of Community for Solopreneurs

This is truly the age of the solopre-neur. Three factors—the radical changes in the economy, the swelling of the creative class, and the huge population of Baby Boomers turning 65 and ready to redefine retirement—have combined to increase rates of solopreneurism na-tionwide. But this important and rapidly growing sector of the economy could use some help; the federal government has not implemented the infrastructure necessary to give these businessmen and -women the support they need.

But it’s not just the government: his-torically, the general public— consciously or not—has looked down on “freelance,” “solo,” or “home-based” businesses. This means that solos are often much more isolated than they need to be. What I want to do is help them find a tribe. I want them to be able to share their wisdom and plug into a network of other people who are making a living by follow-ing their passion.

That’s where the Better, Smarter, Richer MasterMind study groups come in. I have been offering four-week, in-person study groups through the Portland Community College SBDC since 2011, and over and over I’ve had participants tell me how relieved they were to find a group of people that could support them as they dived into the real work of being the business. They’ve been so popular

that I’ve implemented “Booster Shots,” periodic get-togethers for all Better, Smarter, Richer alums that allow people to catch up, reconnect, network, and re-capture that vital sense of community.

STAYING ON TRACKOne of our BSR study group alums,

Fay Putnam, helps performers, pro-fessional voice users, and presenters embody their authentic voice. “Taking the Better, Smarter, Richer course set me on a path of adventure and growth,” she says. “Because solo entrepreneurs need support to stay the course, the [Booster Shots] provide the accountability that is necessary to stay on track. Feedback garnered around the table while we listen and share our progress and concerns pro-vides the community support that is usu-ally lacking when one starts a business as a solo... I would not choose to miss one of these invaluable meetings.”

It’s feedback like this that has made me realize that the study groups at the Portland Community College SBDC aren’t quite enough. The Oregon SBDC has been offering the Better, Smarter, Richer course online through www.bizcenter.org for nearly six months, which is a great start; the rapid new developments in In-ternet technology have finally made solo businesses scalable—and they also offer wonderful new opportunities for tran-

scending geography and connecting with people all over the world. But because many people need the human interaction component, I am now introducing the new Better, Smarter, Richer MasterMind telephone-based study groups: these six-week sessions combine the power-ful communal energy generated by the in-person study groups with the distance learning model to give people the support they need to truly be the business.

STRENGTH IN NUMBERSI am delighted that Portland Com-

munity College made the decision to invest in solopreneurism. As we all know, community colleges nationwide are hotbeds of entrepreneurial energy—which is why it’s so vital that they start focusing on solos. There is true strength in numbers, and when we start sup-porting solos in the work of banding together, we just might raise the national consciousness about this key sector of the small business economy. The Better, Smarter, Richer MasterMind groups are the perfect way to help solos in your region and provide them with the sense of community they need to be successful entrepreneurs—and that’s what NACCE is all about. Contact me to learn how your school can get involved.

Contact [email protected]

MASTER MINDS

By Jackie B. Peterson, Strategic Advisor, SBDCPortland Community College, Portland, Oregon

into a personal one, and Brian proposed to Presley at Christmastime in 2012. They married in October during a mountain-top ceremony at the height of harvest season. Brian incorporated many of the

Dreams Take Root Continued from page 13

vegetables they grew together into their wedding stew.

Brian credits FRC and SIFT for the early success of Sundberg Growers. “Tak-ing the courses is one of the best things

you can do if you’re thinking about start-ing a business,” he says. “That, and the training and support we received through SIFT, helped us to get the framework laid.”


Pitch Competition Is a Tool for Growing Entrepreneur Engagement

Two years ago, Kansas City Kansas Community College (KCKCC) decided to make a concerted effort to increase entrepreneurs’ engagement within the community college. Although there are many programmatic efforts occurring on the college’s campus to achieve engage-ment, the majority of the entrepreneur excitement on campus can be attributed to the growth of the Innovation Summit, KCKCC’s annual pitch competition. The goals of the event were fivefold:

▪ Inspire individuals and educators to innovate;

▪ Unite people in the discovery of new ideas;

▪ Mentor the next generation of ideas; ▪ Promote KC’s entrepreneurial spirit,

and; ▪ Engage and facilitate our com-

munity leaders so they can promote entrepreneurship as a vital part of our culture and economic health.

Although the inaugural event was deemed a success and achieved the afore-mentioned goals, several valuable ‘les-sons learned’ needed to be implemented in the event’s second year for the event to see growth. These implemented ‘lessons learned’ helped the Innovation Summit grow between the first and second years by the following figures: event attendance by 300%; number of private and public sponsors by 200%; number of qualified pitch competitors by 400% and award

dollars by nearly 400%. The growth in the number of impactful success stories was exponential.

Below are KCKCC’s shared ‘lessons learned,’ which can be used to minimize the learning curve for other pitch compe-tition facilitators.

1. Stage the Discussion: The first Innovation Summit did not have the valuable conversations between people from different disciplines. Therefore, in an effort to orchestrate these valuable interactions, it was determined that people needed help in approaching one another. Much like a social setting where one person wants to ask another out on a date, there needs to be commonality or at least a viable reason for one to approach another.

The solution was having each person attending the event act as an investor. We equipped each person with special currency and the task of visiting all pitch persons and determining which they would like to invest in. The top six earn-ers of the special currency would then advance into the 3-minute Perfect Pitch competition. This created a collabora-tive environment because people had the commonality of the task at hand that they would discuss, debate and engage one another with. Essentially, this special currency structure built the stage for col-laboration and discussion to occur.

Another key element in building the discussion stage was having tall round

tables scattered throughout the room with differ-ent food items on each. If individuals wanted an assort-ment of food items for their snack, they were forced to walk around the room and stand at each

tall table, framing perfect opportunities for collaboration to occur.

2. Competitions within the Competi-tion: The goal of a pitch competition is usually along the lines of creating great opportunity for the individual pitching. Typically, this opportunity is a range of the following: award money, connect-ing with mentors, collaborating with potential investors, and positive publicity or media attention. In Kansas City, we are fortunate to have many resources colliding together to offer unique and once-in-a-lifetime opportunities for entrepreneurs. Many of these opportuni-ties are very competitive and application based. In the second Innovation Summit, the organizers and directors of these opportunities partnered with the Innova-tion Summit so that they could recruit and consider the pitch competitors as an applicant for their unique opportunity. This created inherently rich value to all participants. It allowed the summit to lay-er the opportunities that were accessible during the event so that if an individual did not win the monetary award or locate an investor, maybe they connected with the director of another resource that will open several other doors for their idea.

Value was also created for the orga-nizer or director of the other resources in town because this partnership allowed access to ripe and eager entrepreneurs with already developed ideas. This tactic created an event with very high energy due to the “you never know who you are dealing with” mentality as one worked the room. Sample partnerships that created layered opportunities included SparkLab, KC, Digital Sandbox, and the University of Missouri Kansas City entre-preneurship programs.

3. Add in Young Entrepreneurs: Allowing people to seek and find the connections between different disciplines

ACTION STEP #2

By Jay Matlack, Workforce Development Coordinator KCKCCKansas City Kansas Community College, Kansas City, Kansas


20

NACCE Summits Drive Economic Development

This past year, NACCE, with support from The Coleman Foundation and HP, sponsored five regional entrepreneurial summits across the country. These sum-mits were designed to bring together a broad spectrum of stakeholders who are working on or interested in any aspect of entrepreneurship and the impact it has on a community or region.

Each summit presented unique

themes around which they wanted to start a conversation. The first sum-

mit was held at Rancho Santiago

Community College

District Offices and was sponsored by Cal-ifornia’s Economic and Workforce Devel-opment’s Business and Entrepreneurship Center Program. This summit set the tone for making a strong connection between entrepreneurship and workforce devel-opment, and that entrepreneurship plus workforce development equals economic development.

Rio Salado College in Tempe, Arizona, held their summit this past November. Dr. Chris Bustamante, president of Rio Salado College, commented on the importance of hosting a summit and stated, “Arizona is a great place to start a business, and entre-preneurship is essential for the growth of our economy. Community colleges offer training and support for new and existing entrepreneurs, and we felt that hosting a

statewide summit would be an effective opportunity to network and learn.” Dr. Bustamante went on to say, “Two key conversations occurred at the summit. First, the discussion was centered on how we as community colleges can foster a climate of entrepreneurship and pro-vide the tools necessary for successful ventures. Second, concepts were shared about how community colleges them-selves can be more entrepreneurial in the way they operate as institutions.”

MANY STAKEHOLDERSAll of the summits brought in a wide

range of stakeholders to participate in the events. The community college presidents showed up strong and were engaged, sending a message about the

NACCE RESOURCES

By Tim Putnam, Associate Director, NIACC John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center and NACCE FellowNorth Iowa Area Community College, Mason City, Iowa

Dr. Shari Olson, president of South Mountain Community College moderated a panel discussion on Attracting and Connecting Entrepreneurs at the Rio Salado College Entrepreneurship Summit. Panelists (right to left) were Randall Kimmens, associate vice chancellor of Business and Workforce Development at Maricopa Community Colleges; Bruce McHenry, director of the Community Entrepreneurship Center at South Mountain Community College; Tim Mittan, an associate director at the Small Business Development Center Network in Los Angeles, CA; and Greg Strzelcyk, a technology analyst at SavvisCloud.


importance of the day’s activities. Other key stakeholders present included directors from the state’s economic development authori-ties, small business development centers, SBA, workforce development, entrepreneurs, faculty and students. Amy Valente, a NACCE Fellow and Business instructor from Cayuga Community Col-lege presented at the first summit and stated, “It was clear that there was some amazing energy and collaborative spirit in the room. Participants wanted to share what they were doing and learn from each other.”

It was apparent that community colleges are taking on the challenge to become a driver of economic development for their communities. Community colleges have always been able to convene stakeholders on any number of topics. Adding economic development through entre-preneurship as a priority sends a strong message to the regions they serve.

Catawba Valley Community College’s (CVCC) Job Creation Center is a great example of how a community college has brought together existing resources and created new initiatives to foster entrepreneurial and economic development in their community. CVCC has developed a com-prehensive approach to entrepreneurship by bringing together youth business plan competi-tions, entrepreneur networking events, a small business resource center and the Manufacturing Solutions Center. CVCC is also addressing the funding aspects of start-up business through the Innovation Fund America, a partnership with the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.


LIST OF 2013 NACCE SUMMITS AND THEMES:

▪ Rancho Santiago Community College District, CA Role of entrepreneurship in workforce development.

▪ Catawba Valley Community College, NC Developing a strong college community outreach program.

▪ Ridgewater College, MN Creating partnerships linking entrepreneurs, industry and education.

▪ Rio Salado College, AZ Investing in entrepreneurship and supporting job growth in Arizona.

▪ Miami-Dade College, FL Growing the entrepreneurial ecosystem- students, faculty and entrepreneurs.

Pitch Competition Continued from page 19

and cultures leads to an explosion of ideas. During the first Inno-vation Summit, a majority of the audience and pitch participants were adults. There were entire generations not represented even though the event was open to the public and any age could pitch an idea.

The solution was simple, create a division that targeted the underrepresented and develop a marketing strategy just for those groups. The 2nd Annual Innovation Summit had two divisions, high school and general. To populate the high school division, partnerships were created with each school district so business cohorts could include the pitch competition as a part of the course work. Nearly half of our attendees were 20 years old or younger. This added a valuable dimension to the explosion of ideas that occurred between people from different disciplines who attended. The catalyst in creating these divisions was a partnership with State Street, which sponsored $5,000 to be split among the award winners of each division. This drove serious interest from entrepreneurs in all age groups.

4. Keep the Cool…For Everyone: People like to be associ-ated with cool. Well, what is considered cool? Everyone’s version

of cool is different, so how do you appeal to everyone’s Joe Cool? For the 2nd Annual Innovation Summit, we decided that al-though we can’t have all things be cool for all people, there could be a lot of exciting elements that have a wide range in experi-ences – a little cool for everyone. We had many short presenta-tions ranging from technology and manufacturing to ma and pa businesses and Fortune 500 companies. We also had a range of innovative products on display, including newly released auto-mobiles. We had Twitter feeds streaming live for those partici-pating, along with recording spaces designated for those wanting to put their thoughts online through a YouTube station.

Our hope is that these steps and ideas can be replicated or borrowed as others develop or tweak their pitch competitions. KCKCC looks forward to our 3rd Annual Innovation Summit and will continue to look to our community college partners for their suggestions and advice as we grow into one of the most premier pitch competitions in the region.



5. Research time (marketing research, patent research, grants research). People will pay for what they don’t have time to dig for on the Internet and beyond. These are sellable services your center could provide using super-vised student labor through work-study or internships. Do you have a university in the area that needs more internships for its students? This can be a win/win for everyone. The business owner gets valuable research help, you get income and, for some university students a refer-ence from a college is highly sought after, as is the opportunity to network with

your advisory board members.6. Ask yourself what knowledge or

connections you have for which you can charge. Charge the small business client for access to your mentors, consul-tants and network. Charge the consul-tants and major companies for access to your diverse group of new entrepreneurs. Think of it as more than membership, which can feel like charity in the higher ed context; instead, this is like joining the country club for the opportunity to rub elbows with the right people.

7. Event income. Every time you do an event think about not only the imme-

Generating Revenues Continued from page 11

diate income (sponsorships, attendance fees) but also the take-away income sources. Can you sell them a membership in a networking group, a publication or some follow up consultation? Free stuff is often viewed as less valuable.

8. Lists have value (but don’t get in trouble over FERPA). Don’t post attendee lists online or give out too much information in your annual report because these are assets that can leverage revenue.


A Partnership for Economic Development

In July 2010, Southern State Commu-nity College, headquartered in Hillsboro, Ohio, and the Highland County Chamber of Commerce entered into a partnership to promote local economic development us-ing the Ernesto Sirolli model of Enterprise Facilitation. The program was officially named The Highland County Enterprise Initiative, and the project became Grow! Highland County.

Initial funding came from a $99,000 Ru-ral Business Enterprise Grant through the United States Department of Agriculture. The grant was awarded to the college as a 501(c)3 non-profit entity, and the college serves as the fiduciary agent for the grant.

Grow! Highland County is a grassroots, local, hands-on approach to economic development. The program supports entrepreneurs’ ideas and passion for their businesses through a concept known as Enterprise Facilitation. Through this con-cept, a business facilitator works individu-ally with entrepreneurs to establish or grow their businesses. Presently, there are nine projects operating in the United States and there are over 30 projects running worldwide.

CLIENT-DRIVEN PROCESSThe Sirolli method of Enterprise

Facilitation is a client-driven process. The client’s passion for his/her business or idea is the driving force; therefore, the client must initiate the first contact with the busi-ness facilitator to schedule a one-on-one meeting. At this first meeting, the busi-ness facilitator discusses the “Trinity of Business,” which is comprised of product development, marketing, and financial management. This discussion helps the client to identify strengths and weaknesses and to understand how all three areas must be developed thoroughly for their business to be successful. After the first meeting, all subsequent meetings are initi-ated by the client.

The business facilitator is assisted in the process by a resource board made up of volunteers from the community who serve as consultants to clients of the program. These volunteers come from all sectors of the community, business, education, health, legal, etc. Each volunteer is identi-fied according to his or her expertise or knowledge about one of the three areas that comprise the Trinity of Business. Each client is matched with a volunteer to help

ACTION STEPS #1 AND #4

By Sharon Bedard, Business Facilitator, Grow! Highland County and Russ Brewer, Enterprise Center CoordinatorSouthern State Community College, Winchester, Ohio

them build their business team. The busi-ness facilitator also works closely with the local Small Business Development Center counselor in developing a business plan.

The Sirolli method firmly believes that when a community taps into its own en-trepreneurial talents community develop-ment is promoted. To date, Grow! High-land County has helped new or existing businesses create 29 new full- or part-time jobs, retain 17.5 jobs, and increased busi-ness revenue by $500,000.

The program is managed by a program management team that consists of the dean of the Workforce Development and Com-munity Services Division at the college, the Chamber of Commerce president, two local business owners, a retired city manager, and the Enterprise Center coordinator at the college. The program management team is currently working to secure fund-ing from the various political subdivisions and communities within Highland County.

* Enterprise Facilitation and Trinity of management are copyrights of Ernesto Sirolli, and can only be used with his per-mission.

Contact: [email protected] and [email protected]


This exercise provides students with a fictitious product they are tasked to take through production to market. Students work independently to identify individu-als they know (or can get introduced to) who can fill key roles necessary for venture creation and product production. Once students map out their indi-vidual networks, they form groups around the assigned product and synthesize their networks as a new start-up team would. Ultimately, students realize the exponential power of social networks and begin to identify both community and col-lege resources they had not before recognized. This process advances social network theory into practice and helps students consider the importance and power of their existing social networks.

Key considerations for using this exercise are:

• Suggested Class Use: Op-portunity Assessment, Fea-sibility Analysis, Business Planning

• Time needed: 45 minutes• Ideal number of students:

16-20, but easily adaptable to larger or smaller groups

• Type of exercise: experiential learning/critical thinking

• Exercise conducted: individually and then in groups

• Exercise used to assist in explain-ing: business plans, leadership, team formation

EXERCISE DIRECTIONSPreparing the Exercise Material. Select

one product for every four students in the class (e.g., a class of 20 would require five products). In selecting products, we recommend choosing ones that are rela-tively simple to produce from an engineer-ing perspective (i.e., do not choose any products requiring complex electronics because it is difficult for students to know

Social Networks as Resource Networks

what resources are necessary to make the product a reality).

It is also helpful to select products that are unique, quirky, or fun – choosing a trash can that has a new step lever, for example, does not get the students very

excited. We often choose our products from SkyMall magazine (www.skymall.com or complimentary copies can be obtained from most major airlines). Some examples from our product bank include “Infant’s Sleep Sound Lamb,” “The Indoor Dog Rest-room,” “Saturday Night Live – the Game,” and “The Canine Genealogy Kit.” Once you have selected products, make four photocopies of each product information advertisement complete with the product description and pricing. Then shuffle all of the copies so the products are randomly ordered.

Administering the Exercise. Prior to administering the exercise, students have completed an introductory entrepreneur-ship course that exposes them to the need for intellectual property protection, human

EXPERIENTIAL EXERCISE

By Eric Liguori, Assistant Professor & Assistant Director, Lyles Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, California State University, Fresno, Fresno, California and Josh Bendickson, Louisiana State University, Louisiana

resource requirements, entity selection/legal considerations, roles of an advisory board, etc. With this working knowledge assumed, the exercise is incorporated into a lecture on feasibility analysis. During the lecture, the importance of social net-works and how individuals draw on their networks and knowledge during venture creation is reinforced, with the following theory and topics emphasized:

The “Great Man” theory of innovation is discussed (i.e., the idea that single individuals are solely responsible for some of the past century’s greatest inventions). The “Great Man” theory is then dispelled, and two examples are provided:

• Henry Ford and the automobile (1908) – Ford is quoted as saying: “I invented nothing new. I simply assembled into a car the discover-ies of other men behind whom were centuries of work…To teach that a comparatively few men are responsible for the greatest forward steps of mankind is the worst sort of nonsense” (Houn-shell, 1984).

• Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook (2004) – It is widely recognized that Zuckerberg drew on multiple resources to produce Facebook (university infrastructure, an Art History assignment, dorm ID pages, Eduardo Saverin, etc.), yet he is often cited as the sole innovator.

Community resources are abundant; you just have to look for them (SBDC, SCORE, faculty, etc.)

• SBDC’s & SCORE’s mission, local efforts, and expertise are discussed, and contact information provided for the local offices.

• University resources are highlight-ed, and students are encouraged to seek out faculty with expertise in their subject matter. We had a stu-dent working on formulating a new

ULTIMATELY, STUDENTS REALIZE THE EXPONENTIAL POWER OF SOCIAL NETWORKS AND BEGIN TO IDENTIFY BOTH COMMUNITY AND COLLEGE RESOURCES THEY HAD NOT BEFORE RECOGNIZED. THIS PROCESS ADVANCES SOCIAL NETWORK THEORY INTO PRACTICE AND HELPS STUDENTS CONSIDER THE IMPORTANCE AND POWER OF THEIR EXISTING SOCIAL NETWORKS.


wax for bowling balls. Through LinkedIn he used faculty connec-tions to partner up with a material scientist who used to work with synthetic materials, cleaners, and polishes at a 3M research labora-tory (the student received free con-sultation sessions and guidance).

After completion of the lecture, the accompanying image is projected up on screen (image adapted from Hargadon, 2009):

Each student is provided with one of the sample product advertisement copies that were selected and prepared before class. Then, students are told to identify all of the resources necessary to launch a business venture and commercialize the product. Suggested resources include men-tors, partners, services (legal, accounting, marketing), capital (inventors, VCs), and advisory board members. We suggest stu-dents take two to three minutes to scope out what expertise is needed to actually design and create the product, and then move on to what is needed to create the business entity.

Though there is some ambiguity at this point, it forces students to effectively problem solve. Once they have a clear idea of their needs, students should begin to fill in who they know or have access to that can help them meet each resource need. Students are given 15 minutes to complete this process. If more time is available, sug-gest students use their mobile devices or laptops to reverse-engineer their networks by looking at their Facebook or LinkedIn contacts (or better yet, their contacts’ contacts). There are many paths to valid conclusions and you’ll find that very few students navigate this process in the exact same manner.

Once time has elapsed, reconvene class and ask students three questions:

1. How confident are they that they identified all of the resources they would need? (Most will indicate they feel okay about the entity creation but not about actually

creating the product itself.)2. Do they still have gaps they

need to fill in on their dia-grams? (Most will say yes.)

3. Do they feel confident they can begin to assemble a team and begin production of this product tomorrow? (Most will look at you like you are insane, and ulti-mately say no.)

Now instruct them to find the other individuals in the class with the same product and form groups. As a group, their task is to (a) synthesize their assessment of the needs to make the product a reality and (b) com-bine their networks to see how much of the needed expertise they can potentially access as a group. This will require another 15 minutes to complete.

Once time has elapsed, reconvene class and ask the groups the same three ques-tions:

1. How confident are they that they identified all of the resources they would need? (Most groups will feel much more confident.)

2. Do they still have gaps they need to fill in on their diagrams? (Most will again say yes, but readily admit they have far fewer gaps than they did individually.)

3. Do they feel confident they can begin to assemble a team and begin production of this product tomorrow? (Most will look much less anxious than before, and feel more confident that as group they are better capable of proceeding forward.)

Answering these questions for a second time generally creates an “Ah ha” moment for students. This enhances retention and meaning regarding the importance of social networks as resource networks. Ask each group to provide an overview of what their resource needs were and how they planned to fill them. This is a key part of the learning – the students will have likely missed a key need (e.g., most student neglect to consider licensing rights for the SNL board game).

DEBRIEFING THE EXERCISE Key points to cover in the debrief are:• Reiterate prior fundamentals as

needed - Intellectual property protection - Human resource requirements - Entity selection

- Legal considerations - Roles of an advisory board - Production to market process

• Emphasize the importance of networks - “Great Man” theory - Provider of resources

• Expertise• Social resources

- Community resources - Reiterate use of university “good will”

Our undergraduate entrepreneur-ship students had the following to say about this exercise: “It was a cool exer-cise. I had never thought of mapping out my family and friends as business re-sources, but when I looked at it visually I recognized my gaps and had to think of how to fill them.” “I liked that it was not just an individual exercise because at first I had too many holes but when we came together in [the] group they mostly got filled. It is hard to try and do this alone as an international student who does not know anybody in this country, so the group really helped.”

Contact: [email protected] and [email protected]

REFERENCESHargadon, A. (2003). How Break-

throughs Happen. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.

Hargadon, A. (2009). Networks of in-novation. Paper presented at the Green Technology Entrepreneurship Academy, Incline Village, NV.

Hounshell, D. (1984). From the Ameri-can System to Mass Production. 1800-1932: The Development of Manufacturing Tech-nology in the United States. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.

IT WAS A COOL EXERCISE. I HAD NEVER THOUGHT OF MAPPING OUT MY FAMILY AND FRIENDS AS BUSINESS RESOURCES, BUT WHEN I LOOKED AT IT VISUALLY I RECOGNIZED MY GAPS AND HAD TO THINK OF HOW TO FILL THEM.”

- UNDERGRADUATE ENTREPRENEURSHIP STUDENT

26

A member of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities System. An affirmative action, equal opportunity employer/educator.Available in alternative formats to individuals with disabilities by calling 1-877-937-3282 or TTY: 651-423-8621.

DCTC.EDU

A PROVEN COMMITMENT TO ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN EDUCATIONDCTC has helped hundreds of business owners, like Janelle, make their dream become a reality. To learn more about DCTC’s Small Business and Entrepreneurship program, call Bob Voss at 651-423-8356 or email [email protected].

Janelle MeierDCTC Alumna & Co-owner of

Black Barn Bakery

“

”

DCTC’s entrepreneurship classes

provided me with the knowledge

and confidence to successfully

operate my bakery. Learning

about the value of customer

relationships and having the

opportunity to connect with a

network of business owners

in my industry has been

extremely invaluable.


Entrepreneur Boot Camp for High School Students in Northwest Arkansas

Many high school students are busy splashing in the neighborhood pool during the last week of June, but for a number of rising ninth through twelfth-grade students in northwest Arkansas, the focus was on becoming entrepreneurs and starting businesses.

From June 24 through June 28 last summer, students participated in a five-day workshop that introduced them to the entrepreneurship process. The Entrepreneur Boot Camp was the result of a joint effort between the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce and Northwest Arkansas Community College (NWACC). Some might say that entrepreneurship is in the DNA of northwest Arkansas. Walmart, the world’s largest retailer; Tyson Foods, the nation’s largest chicken, pork and beef processor; and J.B. Hunt, one of the nation’s largest logistics com-panies, all started in northwest Arkansas. The region is filled with innovators, and the environment encourages and nur-tures entrepreneurship.

The week began with a Monday morn-ing start at 8:30 a.m. Students met at the Chamber of Commerce and immediately kicked off the week with introductions and general discussions about what the week would include and what students hoped to learn from the experience. During much of the morning students were participants in entrepreneurship games and exercises—all designed to get students thinking about why they might want to become a “startup.”

GENERATING IDEASDuring a Lunch & Learn session, stu-

dents were able to hear about Innovate Arkansas, a program of the Arkansas Economic Development Commission. The primary goal of Innovate Arkansas is to encourage technology-based innovations in Arkansas with the ultimate goal being to turn new inventions and high-tech service concepts into viable commer-

cial enterprises that will create jobs in Arkansas.

By the afternoon of the first day, stu-dents were generating ideas, developing goals, organizing a goals worksheet and beginning the process of turning an idea into a first-draft business model. Home-work for the day included communicating with each other on Facebook, generating more ideas and sharing those ideas in small groups. Swimming was not on the itinerary!

Tuesday also began at 8:30 at the Chamber of Commerce office. Students learned about online storefronts and social entrepreneurship. The next step was a short walk to the Iceberg in Fayetteville, a new 5,600-square-foot co-working facility designed specifically for entrepreneurs who want or need to share office space. The environment helps new start-ups save money, but also allows for the opportunity to collaborate, share concerns, give and get new ideas and pos-sibly even financial assistance. The Ice-berg’s sole purpose is to fuel Arkansas’s entrepreneurial spirit, benefiting those who rent space, future investors and the communities in the area. During Lunch & Learn at the Iceberg, students listened to local business people share their experi-ences as entrepreneurs.

EXPLORING NEW BUSINESSESOn Wednesday, the students visited

the Arkansas Research & Technology Park and heard from several relatively new area businesses. Before noon ar-rived, the students heard from and interacted with Boston Mountain Biotech, Arkansas Power Electronics International (APEI), University of Arkansas Technolo-gy Ventures and High Density Electronics Center (HiDEC), one of only a few work-ing laboratories of its kind in the United States located on a university campus. HiDEC offers fee-based assistance to in-dustry by providing 24/7 access to center

facilities and process training for their employees.

During Wednesday’s Lunch & Learn, students interacted with leaders of an Arkansas-based business, Silicon Solar Solutions, which specializes in large-grain polysilicon technology. After lunch, the students returned to the Iceberg for co-working on their own business develop-ment ideas.

On Thursday morning, the students again arrived at the Chamber of Com-merce at 8:30 a.m. and after a short trip to the nearby Farmer’s Market, perhaps for nourishment for the work ahead, they continued work on their business plans and their “elevator pitch.” A Green Busi-ness after-hours networking event was held in the evening for those who were interested.

FINISHING THE WEEKFinally, on Friday, this dedicated and

hard-working group of students prepared for their competition where each young entrepreneur presented his or her busi-ness idea and plan. The presentations were judged and a cash award for seed money to put the plan into action was provided to the Entrepreneur Boot Camp competition winner. The young man with the winning idea from the boot camp was approached by a national company to explore the possibility of a licensing agreement on the designed product; this young man is 15-years old!

By all accounts, the boot camp was a tremendous success and the young entrepreneurs left with a great deal of knowledge about the work involved in being an entrepreneur, resources avail-able to them and respect for those who choose to start new businesses in their communities.


HIGH SCHOOL LEARNING

By Evelyn E. Jorgenson, Ph.D, President Northwest Arkansas Community College, Bentonville, Arkansas


An EIR? What’s That? I Want One! (I Think)

At NACCE2013, I had several folks ask me about my title and “how that works?” Entrepreneur in Residence is a

term coined by venture capital firms that

understand the value of a team. Basically, they take an entre-preneur who has been suc-

cessful (made them money in an

exit) and house them

in their office to help them guide portfolio companies, all the while, fully expecting the EIR to join one of those teams or cre-ate his own business for them to invest in...and make yet more cash from.

So, how does this work in education? Not well usually. Successful entrepre-neurs rarely have the ability to educate, and strong educators have rarely had successful business exits. Now, there are exceptions, and several entrepreneurs have migrated back to campus to “give back.”

So, how can you set up a model that

PROGRAM BUILDING

By John Liddy, NACCE Entrepreneurial Leadership Fellow & Entrepreneur in Residence,Cayuga Community College and Mohawk Valley Community College, New York

works? You need two people. One serves as the administrator and one serves as the subject matter expert. Here is a brief overview of how I’ve done this in the past.

1. Identify the key stakeholder on campus. This needs to be someone with some “swing,” usually a president, pro-vost or dean. They have to be on board with entrepreneurship and the value of experiential education.

2. Give the stakeholder “boots on the ground.” You will need someone to help the incoming EIR navigate the admin-


istrivia of class visits, office hours and campus parking. Too frequently this is simply doled out to a professor in the business school (who may not be on board with this way of thinking). I have found viewpoint is better than title here and have had some of my best success with executive administrative assistants.

3. Identify an “interim” entrepreneur to start spending time on campus. Your institutional advancement/development/foundation office should have a good un-derstanding of alumni who are local who might fit the bill. Introduce the EIR to the faculty and staff and then schedule them to visit classes and to have meetings with students. Note: you have not asked the EIR to teach, just coach and mentor.

4. Use your “ground troops” to start scheduling entrepreneurial events. Start with things like Start-up Weekends, Meet-ups, Idea jams, etc. In coordination with these events, create a special topics class (usually needs minimal approvals) for the EIR to co-teach with an existing faculty member. The events need a landing spot

for the folks that are interested, and courses are a natural fit for educational institutions.

5. By now, you should have an idea of the interest in entrepre-neurship on campus and should seek out an administrator. You will need to consider things like majors, minors, certificates, co-curricular activities, funding, immersion programs and intern-ships.

6. Once you have the previous items accomplished (or well in hand), you should consider physi-cal space. Too frequently, schools take a “build it and they will come” approach. By creating demand, you have a natural flow for the need for space. It also provides an excellent opportunity for your alumni to get involved.

7. Get your alumni involved. Students need a variety of coaching and mentor-ship and your alumni base is full of excel-lent candidates. The administrator for the program should filter needs and requests.

Include the development office as there is potential for funding.

8. Be ready to replace your EIR. New vision and fresh ideas are important. By having the administrator in place, you do not lose the continuity of the program.

Being an EIR and a NACCE Fellow has been a blast. Feel free to reach out to me with any questions or insights.


SO, HOW CAN YOU SET UP A [ENTREPRENEUR IN RESIDENCE] MODEL THAT WORKS? YOU NEED TWO PEOPLE. ONE SERVES AS THE ADMINISTRATOR AND ONE SERVES AS THE SUBJECT MATTER EXPERT.


Why I Am Using HP LIFE in My Community College Classroom

HP LIFE

By Barbara Millard, Associate Professor, Entrepreneurship Program, Johnson County Community College. NACCE Ambassador for HP LIFE She also operates BCM Training and Development which provides curriculum development and training in the area of entrepreneurship

“GIVE IT UP MOM, THEY AREN’T GOING TO READ THE BOOK.”

My desire to be an HP LIFE Ambas-sador stems mainly from frustrations related to students’ refusal to read the material from a traditional textbook. Several years ago, when my son was still in college, he made a comment to me stat-ing, “Give it up Mom, they aren’t going to read the book.” I had been scheming up all kinds of ways to get them to read the textbook….and it clearly wasn’t working.

This generation is uninterested in read-ing and bored by worksheets. I needed something to liven up my business plan class and engage students in the materi-als…in a way that speaks to this genera-tion….which usually means it needs to be technology based. Yes, I’ve created some engaging exercises on my own and many work well. However, with a full workload, that leaves little time to create exercises that entertain and engage this generation. In addition, even though I teach at a community college that has a great deal of re-sources, I don’t have the resources to create technology based exercises that match the quality of those in HP LIFE. That is what students today want and especial-ly for classes that are online, that is what students need.

ONLINE MODULES “ARE FUN…RATHER THAN A BORING WORKSHEET”

Enter HP LIFE. The units in HP LIFE are just what I was looking for to add new life to my teach-ing. They speak to the students in a manner in which they listen and respond. This past week, I asked one class to write down their response to the HP LIFE units in general. Here are a few comments: “I like them because of the hands on learning; “they are more engag-ing than an article or textbook chapter”; “they are fun to do rather than a boring worksheet” and my favorite…”they make you think”.

FREE OPEN EDUCATION RESOURCES ARE ACCESSIBLE

As I visit with professors in other disciplines, I’ve sometimes been rather jealous of the tech based resources they have available to them. Peers who teach in areas that offer book publishers and other educational resource providers a larger market tend to have tech based resources that span all areas of their discipline. While most of us teaching in the area of Entrepreneurship believe that it should be a core subject for all college students, in reality, it isn’t and therefore,

the market is small when compared to subjects like Biology and English. Con-sequently, we don’t have a lot of quality, innovative tech based teaching tools to use in our classrooms or online.

HP LIFE IS FILLING A VOID Would I still like to have them read the

textbook and highlight all over it like I did back in the 70’s? Sure….but, it isn’t the 70’s. I’m not ready to fully take my son’s advice and “Give it up” but I’m thrilled to have alternative resources for my students. I still have hope that these re-sources might inspire them to dig deeper into the subject whether it be by reading in more depth in the textbook or digging deeper through the Next Steps section in HP LIFE….and I’m finding that some students are doing just that.

Interested in checking out HP LIFE for your class? Try it yourself at http://www.life-global.org/go/nacce and schedule a demo with Kim Norbuta at [email protected]

“I LIKE THEM BECAUSE OF THE HANDS ON LEARNING”

“THEY ARE MORE ENGAGING THAN AN ARTICLE OR TEXTBOOK CHAPTER”

“THEY ARE FUN TO DO RATHER THAN A BORING WORKSHEET”

”THEY MAKE YOU THINK”


HP LIFELearning Initiative for Entrepreneurs HP LIFE e-Learning is an Open Educational Resource available for use in your course now

• Learn business concepts and IT skills at no cost to you or your students

• Easy to integrate – no complex learning management systems, no access codes to purchase

• Twenty two simple, interactive courses that cover finance, operations, marketing and communications

• Community of faculty to support you with course goals

For more information on how to use HP LIFE e-Learning, contact Kim Norbuta at [email protected]

HP LIFE e-Learning:www.life-global.org/go/nacce

Program partners Technology partners


Add a Dash of Creativity to the Topic of Innovation

I’m happy to share with NACCE mem-bers some new ways to increase student motivation and retention by energizing your classes and actively engaging stu-dents in the subject matter.

As author of the entrepreneurship textbook Opportunity Analysis: Business Ideas, Identification and Evaluation, I have an ongoing interest in sharing in-novative teaching tools with members of the Faculty User Group for my book. I was, therefore, immediately interested when one of its members, Dr. Doug Woodard of Kellogg Community College, emailed me about a student simulation that focuses on increasing innovation.

A video of this simulation, from the d-school (Design School) at Stanford University, entitled the “Design Thinking Crash Course,” can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=-FzFk3E5nxM. In the video, students work with a partner through a sequence of ac-tivities that demonstrate the importance of the steps of Empathy, Define, Ideate, Prototype and Test to the design process.

The parallel of the design thinking process with the entrepreneurial process was striking. I, therefore, contacted the d. school at Stanford University to clarify issues of copyright (See note regarding copyright at end of article), and they directed me to this link, which provides professors instructional materials to introduce the “Design Thinking Crash Course” activity to their classes: http://

dschool.stanford.edu/dgift/#gear-up.

In the crash course activity, the key points that students have the op-portunity to

learn and person-ally experience

include:

• Be human-centered in the way you work.

• Prototype everything -- test what’s working and what’s not.

• Be collaborative. Innovation is a team sport.

• Have a bias toward ACTION.

HELPFUL HANDOUT AVAILABLE

Although not appropriate for use in all classes, highly motivated and engaged entrepreneurship students would likely reap signifi-cant benefits from participation in the simulation. The “Design Think-ing Crash Course” can be conduct-ed as is, or can be tweaked more specifically to an entrepreneurial audience by changing the scenario on which it is based. To that end, I developed the “The Business Idea Experience” handout, inspired by the d. school at Stanford Universi-ty materials, and would be happy to provide a copy to those who contact me. (See email address below.)

A helpful resource to use to introduce the “Design Thinking Crash Course” is Kauffman Foundation’s Video Sketchbook: “Plum Organics Co-founder Mixes Passion and the Practice of Design Thinking.” This three-minute video includes an overview of the Stanford d-school design thinking process and ties it together with the entrepreneurial process, thus lending relevance to the design process in which students engage. The Sketchbook video can be found at: http://www.kauffman.org/newsroom/plum-organics-co-founder-mixes-pas-sion-and-the-practice-of-design-thinking-in-new-kauffman-video-sketchbook.aspx?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Opticast&utm_campaign=Ideas_At_Work_8_22_13.

RESOURCES

By Mary Beth Izard, President, Acheve Consulting Professor Emeritus, Author

Through students’ participation in the design thinking process and person-ally engaging in the steps of Empathy, Define, Ideate, Prototype and Test, they walk away from this activity with tools and understandings critical to product development and launching and growing their businesses.


*Excerpt from e-mail regarding usage of d. school materials:

“Please feel free to access and use our materials. Though the materials are not copyrighted per se, we tend to follow the general principles of the Creative Commons licensing, which is as follows: these materials are for non-commercial share-alike use, which means that you’re not charging to facilitate the a workshop based solely on d.school materials, that you share the materials with others, and that you attribute the d.school for the ma-terials. You can find printable copies of all the resources at this link: http://dschool.stanford.edu/dgift/#gear-up.”

THROUGH STUDENTS’ PARTICIPATION IN THE DESIGN THINKING PROCESS AND PERSONALLY ENGAGING IN THE STEPS OF EMPATHY, DEFINE, IDEATE, PROTOTYPE AND TEST, THEY WALK AWAY FROM THIS ACTIVITY WITH TOOLS AND UNDERSTANDINGS CRITICAL TO PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT AND LAUNCHING AND GROWING THEIR BUSINESSES.

Agency: Davis AdvertisingClient: QCCW.S.# QCC21007File Name: QCC21007_NAC-CE8c10-5.inddProgram: inddLocation: Art Dept>Education>QCC>AdsArtist: NT

AE/AC: SS/ASMedia: NACCESize: 8” x 10.5”Color: 4CBleed: NoDate: December 2013Photo: supplied by clientOther:

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_Revisions: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13.

QCC Fast Facts*

• QCC graduates annually

contribute some $223 million

to the local economy.

• Through higher incomes,

QCC students contribute an

estimated $46 million in taxable

income to the Massachusetts

economy each year.

• 78% of QCC graduates remain

in the community.

We’re in your Neighborhood!Worcester • Southbridge • Marlborough • Online

508.853.2300www.QCC.edu

*The Economic Contribution of Quinsigamond Community College, EMSI, 2011

CELEBRATING 50 years OF ENTREPRENEURIAL LEADERSHIP IN CENTRAL MASSACHUSETTS.


Dr. Janice H. Gilliam

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

RESIDENCEBlountville, TN

ORGANIZATION Northeast State Community College

OCCUPATIONPresident

FIRST JOBCosmetologist; then faculty at Isothermal Community College, Spindale NC; then at Haywood Community College, Clyde, NC; then VP of Student Development, Haywood Community College

PHILOSOPHYCommunity colleges have democratized higher education; my role as president is “talent recovery” and making students aware of opportunities and changing lives, as the community college has changed mine, as a graduate and employee (NC Community Colleges 28.5 years, president at NeState 4.5 years).

FAVORITE MUSICEasy Listening and Classical Country (Vince Gill)

FAVORITE MOVIE“Gone with the Wind”

FAVORITE BOOKJohn Maxwell’s 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership

WHAT GOT ME INTERESTED IN MY WORKI wanted to be a math teacher in high school, but my parents were concerned about sending me off to college (riots and hip-pies in the ‘70s) so I chose to be a cosmetology teacher instead, which led me to faculty and administrator positions in the com-munity college.

GREATEST ACCOMPLISHMENTRaising three sons with my husband, Austin; completing my doctorate, a first generation college graduate (mother and father completed 8th grade).

SUCCESS IS...Being a servant leader wherever you are.

FAVORITE QUOTEJohn Maxwell, “The heart of leadership is putting others ahead of yourself. It’s doing whatever is best for the team.”

CURRENT PROJECT(S) • Sharing our mission, which is about Access, Completion, and

Community• Providing access to higher education within 20-30 miles of

every citizen (opening/expanding new teaching sites and advancing use of technology in delivering higher education)

• Growing our capacity to serve students and change their lives—improving “wrap around services” to help students persist and complete a certificate or degree

• Expanding workforce development in the region• Professional development/leadership for employees to

prepare the college for the future• Leading through entrepreneurial skills sets (previously

owned a business, certified as a REAL Instructor (Rural Entrepreneurship through Action Learning)—developed a cost center approach to budgeting/planning; gain/loss statements for each program/service area—revenues v. ex-penses, break-even analysis for teaching sites for example; access to information through iDashboards to make data-informed decisions

• Improving efficiency and sustainability by implementing strategies to reduce cost while providing the highest quality education (leveraging technology, such as video conferenc-ing, to reduce travel costs from campuses to attend meet-ings; paperless workflow saved the college $30K last year, new HVAC boilers saving $80K annually)

HOW HAS NACCE IMPACTED YOUR WORK? I was involved with integrating entrepreneurial skill sets across the college at Haywood Community College and as a faculty member in a program of study (NC REAL), so getting engaged in NACCE was a welcomed opportunity to expand these concepts at Northeast State. An Entrepreneurship Certificate is being developed as part of our Small Business Operations AAS degree. We are committed to leading entrepreneurially through trans-formative leadership. We have sent faculty to REAL training and currently are providing support to our local small businesses through the NACCE-Sam’s Club Shared Vision grant.


www.k auffman.org/startupcommunit ies

www.kauffman.org

Fostering economic independence by advancing education and entrepreneurship

When entrepreneurs scale, communities scale.

Entrepreneurs are the key to growing the economy, and

sustainable ecosystems are vital to driving innovation,

new business creation, and job growth. Help Startup Your

Community by pledging to mentor, host, teach, or fund.

Non-Profit Org.US Postage Paid Springfield, MAPermit # 1215

1 Federal Street, Bldg. 101Springfield, MA 01105

@NACCE NACCE.COM

SAVE THE DATE

ARIZONA GRAND RESORT & SPAOCTOBER 12-15, 2014

PHOENIX, AZ

2014 CONFERENCE

Documents

COMMUNITY COLLEGE ENTREPRENEURSHIP - c.ymcdn.com · A Publication of NACCE Winter Spring 2014 COMMUNITY COLLEGE ENTREPRENEURSHIP WHAT’S ON NACCE’S 2014 AGENDA? Q&A WITH HEATHER