• Defining of entrepreneurship
• How entrepreneurship has positively affected UND and Grand Forks, ND
• How entrepreneurship can positively affect Detroit Lakes and MSCTC

 

1. Entrepreneurs, what skills and competencies do you need to be successful?

2. Faculty, do you know your students and what they need to know to be successful entrepreneurs?

If you have answered "no” to either of these questions, then you will find the Best Practice described in this article extremely meaningful!

In the Summer/Fall 2008 Community College Entrepreneurship article entitled "Best Practice: The DNA of an Entrepreneur” you were introduced to the "Successful Entrepreneur Traits Assessment Profile.” This article provides you 25 traits of successful entrepreneurs and suggested that everyone in the United States possessed Entrepreneurs DNA. As we all know, having the right genetics is extremely useful but it is not the only thing needed to be successful. Possessing such items as the necessary knowledge, skills and competencies and the right attitude, belief system and motivation is also valuable ingredients in achieving success.

This article introduces you to a powerful tool entitled: "Best Practice: The Entrepreneurship Skill and Competency Assessment.” The assessment focuses on the core skills and competencies enabling success in entrepreneurship.

The Entrepreneurship Skill and Competency Assessment is designed in support of and aligned to the learning objectives and outcomes of the Entrepreneurship curriculum and related courses. The assessment consists of a multiple choice assessment/test administered, in part, as a:

• Program and course pre and post test,

• Final Entrepreneurship Program exam,

• Proficiency exam, and

• Resource for Entrepreneur’s Development Planning.

Both students of entrepreneurship and faculty find enormous value in this best practice. The assessment enables students to:

• Assess their understanding of entrepreneurship,

• Understand their current entrepreneurship
proficiency,

• Define their learning plan–including identifying learning opportunities,

• Determine the degree of learning as they complete the targeted learning opportunities, and

• Measure progress and achievement.

The Entrepreneurship Skill and Competency Assessment allows faculty to:

• Understand their class composition,

• Adjust their teaching strategy appropriately to the needs of their students and classes,

• Measure and determine extent of learning gain,

• Reinforce learning,

• Know the current state of students-proficiency,

• Determine the intention of students – including the future needs of Entrepreneurs completing courses.

In conclusion, each of us possesses "The DNA of an Entrepreneur.” Knowing and developing skills and competencies are key to success. These skills and competencies are core to every Entrepreneurship Program. The "Entrepreneurship Skill and Competency Assessment” promotes the design, development and maintenance of a quality Entrepreneurship Curriculum. Students and faculty work synergistically through the use of this assessment.

A future article will address the categories that are the foundation of the Entrepreneurship Program curriculum referred to as the "E-Triangle.” Please feel free to contact me for additional information, questions or comments on the "Best Practice: The Entrepreneurship Skill and Competency Assessment” at david.siefert@sinclair.edu

Minnesota State Community and Technical College, Detroit Lakes, MN

This article represents number three in a series of four chronicling the relationship between MSCTC- Detroit Lakes, Business and Entrepreneurial Services and the University of North Dakota (UND). For those of you new to this series, the partnership was formed to develop and strengthen entrepreneurial services in West-central Minnesota. The collaboration is now one year old and has played a valuable role in enhancing services and resources for our students and communities.

In the initial stages of our collaboration, we literally asked UND for any assistance that could aid our efforts. As our vision coalesced and as entrepreneurship moved further to the forefront in the area, we collectively determined best fits for synergy and joint ventures.

We pointed to several distinct examples that illustrate the entrepreneurial spirit and successes in the region that we believe any community college can attain with the appropriate effort.

• Securing significant grant funding for startup purposes
• Providing stellar entrepreneurship presentations by well-known, successful entrepreneurs
• Initiating non-credit instruction offerings (via Kauffman’s Planning the Entrepreneurial Venturetm) in Detroit Lakes and surrounding communities
• Developing an AAS Business Entrepreneurship Degree (starting class of 22 students)
• Expanding partnerships with regional Chambers of Commerce, Economic Developers, SBDC, SCORE, and business and industry to leverage capital, resources and services
• Recruiting a superlative and influential advisory board including David W. Anderson, Founder of Famous Dave’s Restaurants and Key Lime Cove Resort
• As we continued to meet with counterparts at the university, we settled on the following shared efforts:
• Matching curriculum - UND graciously shared existing curriculum in an effort to create transparency and articulation opportunities for seamless transfer.
• Shared course offering - The two institutions agreed to offer Imagination, Creativity, and Entrepreneurial Thinking, ENTR 266 and 366, concurrently.
• Entrepreneur Boot Camps - UND offers summer camps to area college students; MSCTC- DL will begin to offer similar camps to area middle and high school students.
• Marketing – MSCTC-DL has developed several promotional and advertising media including a 15- minute infomercial in which UND faculty and staff offered testimonies.
• Business Plan Competitions – MSCTC-DL faculty and staff have participated in the judging of UND competitions and UND will reciprocate.
• Inoneweekend.org – Jeff Stamp, UND Entrepreneurship faculty, has led and participated in successful joint startup ventures through this organization. MSCTC-DL is currently making preparations to deliver such a venture in Detroit Lakes.

These cooperative developments have led to stimulating opportunities for area entrepreneurs. This fall, MSCTC-DL will host UND faculty and staff presentations on Angel Investor Networks and a kick-off meeting with potential investors to launch a regional network based in Detroit Lakes. Plans to develop a business incubator to include student ventures are on track to open in the fall of 2009. We have also had enthusiastic conversations regarding the potential for developing a Minnesota Entrepreneurship Conference.

For us at MSCTC-DL, the partnership with UND has been truly beneficial. We continue to realize the mutual benefit for both institutions, especially the broadening of services, resources and opportunities for students, community members and future entrepreneurs in Detroit Lakes and surrounding area.

Are you interested in entrepreneurship research? I would like to share with you a resource that I use regularly: The Handbook of Entrepreneurial Dynamics: The Process of Business Creation, (2004). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, edited by William B. Gartner, Kelly G. Shaver, Nancy M. Carter and Paul D. Reynolds.

This handbook is a robust volume that may benefit those seeking some direction and background for getting a grasp on entrepreneurship research or something more fundamental, such as support for design of a new course or a learning module. The history behind this handbook is quite interesting. Basically the handbook is a collection of research from members of the Entrepreneurship Research Consortium (ERC) who participated in the development of the Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics (PSED). In 2001 these consortium scholars were invited to submit chapters that represented the primary theoretical viewpoints underlying the strategy for researching the process of business creation.

Condensed history leading to the creation of the ERC and PSED

In 1993, an effort began to create reliable empirical descriptions of the business creation process. The Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority provided the financing to survey Wisconsin adults screening samples for those who were involved in business creation. Later in 1996, based on this initial success of this methodology largely designed by Charles Palit, Associate Director of the University of Wisconsin Survey Research Laboratory, the study was replicated using a representative sample of U.S. households by the Survey Research Center at the University of Michigan. The Entrepreneurial Research Consortium (ERC) grew from this research design to include 120 scholars from 34 entrepreneurial research centers that provided financial support to implement the first Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics (PSED I) in 1998. Additional financial support came from two National Science foundation grants and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation with data collection responsibilities eventually being transferred to the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research after the closure of the University of Wisconsin’s Survey Laboratory midway through the project.

In 2004, PSED II was created following improvements in data collection procedures and identification of a new cohort in a different type of economic activity. PSED II was possible through the financial support of again the Kauffman Foundation and the U.S. Small Business Administration.

PSED I and PSED II both created unique data sets that help inform the business creation process and eliminate gaps in understanding of the life course of a business. Both PSED I and PSED II provide longitudinal data that begins with firm conception and tracks start-up efforts until a new firm has been established. This data is fully documented, in the public domain and represents cohorts of nascent entrepreneurs or individuals who are just starting to develop a new business. PSED I and PSED II have made a positive contribution to the creation of measures that can used in future research. The data sets are available at: www.psed.isr.umich.edu.

Essential contents of the handbook

• Part I: Demographic Characteristics of the Entrepreneur; 10 chapters

• Part II: Cognitive Characteristics of the Entrepreneur; 11 chapters

• Part III: The Start-Up Process; 12 chapters

• Part IV: The Entrepreneurial Environment; 5 chapters

How I use the handbook

1. Expand my current knowledge base about new business creation

2. Increase relevancy of courses and campus resources for student entrepreneurs

3. Improve instructional design of entrepreneurship courses

4. Apply entrepreneurship research to impact student success

5. Identify new uses for existing measures and PSED data sets.

North Iowa Area Community College, Mason City, IA

When considering education on entrepreneurship, community colleges need to consider the broader perspective of entrepreneurship. There are many constituencies to whom we must provide education, insight and support. At North Iowa Area Community College (NIACC), the John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center (JPEC) is focused on three important areas, one being of course, Entrepreneurship Education. And yes, we have traditional courses for classic students and for continuing education type students as well. However, our charge is much broader than that and we would submit, so should yours.

We have an obligation to "educate” the citizens of our North Iowa region on the value and practical implications of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial support. At NIACC we have focused time and energy on educating elected officials and we do that in many ways. We have held private meetings with elected officials to help them understand the role of entrepreneurship in economic development. We have provided training in communities for both entrepreneurs and for elected officials. We have encouraged communities to become more entrepreneurial and assisted in that effort through lectures, training and, in some cases, funding of specific events to support entrepreneurial activities.

We believe education does not stop at the classroom door but must be an integral component of everyday life of an entrepreneurial center, taking place in the communities and for a broad constituency group. We have held several Elected Officials Symposiums on Entrepreneurship in North Iowa, attracting over 100 elected officials to come learn and hear success stories about entrepreneurial communities elsewhere in the U.S. We have sponsored speakers that bring important messages on how to build an entrepreneurial culture in their communities or how to reinvigorate a community or area that has suffered from plant closings and neglect, like the Appalachian region of Ohio. June Holly, Co-founder and CEO of the Appalachian Center for Economic Networks, Athens Ohio, was one such speaker bringing a different perspective and challenging our elected officials with new ideas and opportunities.

These efforts at educating the public must be part of a strategy to reach and expand upon the existing entrepreneurial environment that exists in a region, and it should be a focus of each community college that has an entrepreneurial program. Community colleges have a vested interest in the growth and prosperity of their regions, let alone an expectation to support the training and growth of businesses in their areas. Elected Officials Symposiums on Entrepreneurship is one way to help lay the groundwork for entrepreneurial support and growth. Entrepreneurship matters regardless of the focus or the "student.”

"Three years ago I decided I wanted to go back to school,” says Leach. "My family and I were living in the slums of Lemoore in a 2-bedroom apartment where the rent was $400. I decided it was time to bring us out of there.”

Leach had earlier attended the Fresno Institute of Technology to learn how to build and repair computers, but illness had kept him from completing the course. After he began taking courses in Entrepreneurship with Paden, he was soon visualizing how he wanted to improve things for his family. And he began dreaming up ideas for new technology.

"Chris has very good computer skills, and I said ‘Start writing your ideas down,’” recalls Paden, who in addition to teaching is a successful entrepreneur who has run his own IT company for over 17 years.

"I got a book to write down my ideas and I started going on-line to learn how to draw schematics for my ideas,” says Leach. "I still carry a book around with me all the time; I’ll get an idea and I’ll write it down and run it by Monte or my wife.”

The idea that most intrigued Leach was designed for the young male market of people like Leach who enjoy both cars and music. Soon he was submitting an application to the U.S. Patent Office for an after-market product that would enable users to significantly boost the sound output of their car radios.

"At the time, the $74 patent application fee was a stretch for me,” recalls Leach. "And they said it can take up to 18 months for a patent to be approved. In my case, it took almost 18 months to the day. Meanwhile, I was still working three jobs.”

Over the next year, Leach invested another $1,000 of hard-earned money in parts so he could perform the bench testing required to get the patent approved. All the while, Paden was encouraging him, reminding him that if this idea didn’t work out, he still had plenty of others. "That’s the true entrepreneur spirit,” says Paden. "If one thing doesn’t work out, you try something else.”

Nerves of Steel Pay Off

Once a letter from the U.S. Patent Office stating that his patent was in hand, Leach contacted three leading mobile electronics companies, two of whom wanted to bench test his design. "Monte advised me that if they wanted to test the product, it should have a price attached to it,” says Leach. "He said, ‘Don’t name a price. Make them tell you what it’s worth to them.’”

The first offer came in at $150,000 to purchase the design; no royalties were included. Leach said no. Negotiations with both companies dragged on. "I was getting two or three calls a week from both companies,” he says. "Finally, one of them sent a private plane to pick me and my family up and take us to LA; they took my wife and kids to Disneyland and took me to a conference room in their headquarters. Their first offer was $2 million and 1 ½ percent royalties. I asked myself what Monte would do.”

What Leach did was call their bluff. When his wife happened to call him on his cell phone, he convinced the people in the room that it was their competitor calling with a higher offer and then he started to walk out of the room. By the time he got to the receptionist’s desk, they called him back and raised their offer to $4 million with 5 percent royalties.

Leach is now setting up his own business as an idea broker after a chance meeting with an idea broker from San Francisco. "People would come to him with ideas and he helps them make their ideas real,” Leach says. "That’s what Monte did for me, and I wanted to do it as a lucrative business. I can pass along the small things I’ve learned about the business side. For me, I’ve learned, I’ve won and now it’s time for me to teach.”

 

Jefferson Community College, Steubenville, OH

Having successfully defended my dissertation in early June, I found myself with a luxury that was absent for many years, free time in the summer. I took in an REO Speedwagon concert in August and four concepts came to mind: Persistence, Quality, Core Competencies, and Adaptability.

I have seen REO Speedwagon perform live at least 20 times over the past 30 years; their sound is always great and the show is always enthusiastic. As a band, their musicianship is unparalleled.

Since their formation in the early 1970s REO Speedwagon has undergone several personnel changes. They played in bars early on, reached world-wide superstardom with High Infidelity, the best-selling album in 1981, and then found themselves back in the clubs in the late 1980s and 1990s. Yet, because of the quality of their sound and their ability to adapt to changing musical tastes, they have been able to persist and thrive well into the new millennium.

Their ability to adapt was evident during the recent show when they ripped through the anti-war hard rock anthem from 1972 Golden Country and then immediately played Can’t Fight this Feeling, one of the power ballads that put them on top in the 1980s. One aspect of REO’s music that never wavered was their energetic stage show and commitment to quality music. By maintaining these core competencies, they have sustained success after nearly 40 years together.

Persistence, Quality, Core Competencies, and Adaptability. The principles that have enabled REO Speedwagon to endure are the same principles that are required of entrepreneurs in our constantly changing economic climate. Today’s entrepreneurs must have the persistence to continue in the face of tougher times and increased competition. The quality of their products and services must be second to none. And today’s entrepreneur must be able to adapt to changing customer wants and needs. Sustaining success is no easy task. The entrepreneur who identifies, understands, and works at continuous improvement of his/her organization’s core competencies improves the chances of long-term success.

Come to think of it, persistence, quality, adaptability, and focusing on core competencies are four pretty good rules to live by for the classroom instructor who wants to continue to serve his or her community college’s students. It’s no secret that our students have changed over the years. Those of us who are willing to develop new classroom techniques on a solid pedagogical foundation may find ourselves like REO Speedwagon…still rockin’ hard well into the future!

Providing customer value is the key to economic development today. Yet, people working or studying in any field have traditionally very limited experience learning the skills needed to provide customer value. Providing customer value is defined here as meeting a ‘want’ for someone or some organization that will pay for this want to be met. It is becoming clear that having customer value-providing skills is an essential competitive advantage in today’s fast changing technological society. It is also the key to entrepreneurship and producing an entrepreneurial population that can succeed in an emerging globalizing economy. In this economy more and more people have to create their own job to make a living or convince an employer they can produce and deliver something people will pay for.

 

 

West Virginia University at Parkersburg, Parkersburg, WV

In the spring 2008, faculty and administrators at West Virginia University at Parkersburg decided to review the 21-hour general education curriculum that is part of the associate of applied science degree programs. A review revealed that degree programs required a vast array of courses that may or may not specifically support the major or future workplace needs.

Recently, area industry representatives had commented in workforce meetings that students did not need the typical general education curriculum as they prepare for the workplace. Examples included music appreciation and other fine arts courses that, while important and valuable for any educated citizen, may not be necessary for a person preparing for a specific professional skill path. Considering the subtle movement in technical postsecondary education to approach general education creatively and innovatively, a proposal to fund a study of general education was developed and submitted to the state community and technical college commission.

Strands for Technical General Education

To initiate a creative response to general education, a literature review was conducted to determine previous work and lessons learned. Additionally, a review of literature was needed to identify a series of strands and themes for guiding general education competencies. The review of the literature unveiled important strands that would be used as a framework for identifying general education competencies that all students, regardless of specific technical major, would be expected to achieve. These included the following goals and abilities:

• Communication (Writing, oral communication) – The ability to communicate effectively with a variety of constituencies and express ideas through writing, speaking, listening, and reading.

• Computation (Mathematical literacy skills) – The ability to use mathematic skills to compute effectively and accurately using traditional and non-traditional methods.

• Collaboration (Teamwork) – The ability to work with others productively and collaboratively toward a common, shared goal with achievable targets.

• Critical Thinking (Problem solving) – The ability to think creatively to provide alternative methods for achieving goals and to engage in continuous analysis and synthesis of information and results.

• Competition (Global economy, entrepreneurship) – The ability to identify strategies and goals for being competitive in a world market and the importance of a work ethic in achieving those goals.

Methodology

To initiate the project, a team of 10 faculty were convened representing general education and technical fields to determine how to infuse the content strands into the associate of applied science technical programs. As the team began their work, they reviewed research on previous approaches, challenges, and administrative needs for infusing general education. Additionally, five specific questions were identified as critical to their investigation and would need to be answered to effectively set a plan in motion:
1. Can modules be developed that address the components of the five strands?

2. Which components are taught by subject area faculty and which components are taught by technical area faculty?

3. How is the conversion made from the modular, infused general education to corresponding general education courses for transcript purposes?

4. How is general education measured and what external instrument is used to ensure that competencies are met?

5. Are there any accreditation issues that need to be addressed?

The team collaboratively and collectively addressed each of the five questions as a catalyst for further review, realizing that the full work of the project would occur during the spring 2009 semester when the first pilot general education project begins. The team determined that the AAS in Welding Technology would be the first program for the project with the competencies to be infused coming from general education mathematics. To obtain support from faculty for the infusion project, a concept paper will be written by a subcommittee of the team and presented to faculty during Faculty Professional Development Week.

Assessment of Outcomes

A report after the first semester will be written and shared. Modifications will be made as warranted and the assessment cycle will continue to ensure the program is successful. Students will be administered a standardized assessment after the completion of the first cycle of the infused general education modules, which is tentatively anticipated in spring 2009.

Needless to say, today’s business buzzword begins with the big ‘G’ for Green. Organizations at every level are concerned, or at least showing concern, about the impact of business activities on society and the environment. I say great! It’s about time we start looking at the big picture and not individual bits and pieces.

In K-12 classrooms we have witnessed an increasing awareness about global warming. In several of our workshops, the students themselves have proposed green business concepts. It’s up to us as educators to take advantage of this yearning and challenge them to help us solve perhaps the most complex problems humanity has ever faced. One way we are doing this is by combining green terminology into our youth entrepreneurship courses, or green e-ship as we like to call it. Here is a simplified outline of what we offer them.

A Green Journey: To start, we like to stress the importance of balance in any entrepreneurial venture. Research about the learning characteristics of Generation Y students demonstrates a growing concern for work-life balance. So we strongly emphasize the need for a positive outlook on life, having fun in business, and extending these attitudes to green business practices.

Green is Better: Leaders who incorporate green thinking into their organizations can have an advantage over competitors that don’t. Green teams can be more powerful than traditional groups; but it is not easy communicating a green proposition for group support. We provide leadership building exercises that raise self-esteem, while showing respect towards others and the planet. These Green Leaders can and want to make the world a better place.

Sustainability: Another magical word today, beside green, is sustainability. We challenge youth to look ‘outside the forest’ and design new business models that simultaneously account for business, social and ecological factors. These models need to view return on investment in financial, social and ecological terms. This is definitely a challenge, but today’s youth are more than up to the task.

Green Innovations: A good idea is not necessarily a good business opportunity. Similarly, a green idea is not necessarily a sustainable business opportunity. We like to take students through the entire innovation process and demonstrate how green thinking can be incorporated into every aspect of business and product cycles. Many students are creative by nature; they just need a ‘playing field’ to let their ideas run.

Cultivating Green: Finally, green business planning has its peculiarities. While the process incorporates many of the elements of a traditional approach, green business plans go a couple steps further and into the realms of social and ecological ‘capital.’ This is the climax of the course as instructors are rewarded by students who ‘talk and walk’ green.

This is as much a learning experience for us as for the students. We know we have a long way to go and are running as fast as we can to promote green e-ship to our students–and today’s youth move at cyber speeds.

Professor Emeritus in Business Education
Howard Community College, Columbia, MD

Although we often think of it as new and innovative, team teaching is a concept that has been in existence since teaching began many centuries ago. Socrates employed it, and it was used to settle medieval disputes (Shafer, 2000). It is a way to combine the knowledge and skills of more than one person to produce a better, more meaningful class experience and broaden students understanding of the course content by providing them with more than one perspective.

There are numerous combinations of methods for using team teaching, but all include "two or more faculty in some level of collaboration in the planning and delivery of a course.” Davis (1995), Maroney (1995), Robinson and Schaible (1995) and Goetz (2007), describe several methods used: Traditional Team Teaching where both teachers plan the course, are in the classroom together lecturing and assisting students, and share grading responsibilities; Collaborative Team Teaching, similar to traditional except that, in the classroom, the teachers dialogue together about course material, sharing different viewpoints and ideas with the students; Complimentary/Supportive where one teacher lectures and sets the stage for follow-up activities conducted by the other teacher; Parallel Instruction where the class is divided into two smaller groups and each teacher teaches the same material to his or her respective group and, similarly, a Differentiated Split Class may divide students according to ability and each teacher teaches his or her group based on students’ prior understanding of the material. Lastly is Monitoring Teacher where both teachers are in the classroom, one instructing and the other assisting students to increase their understanding of the lecture material.

Regardless of how the class is structured, the major advantage to team teaching is bringing together different skill sets, background and knowledge of each of the teachers on the team. One teacher described it as "akin to attending daily professional development seminars” (Goetz, 2007).

As with any good teaching technique that deviates somewhat from the normal method of delivery, there can be some drawbacks. It takes a lot of time and effort to plan and work together, including time up front for course design, and time during the semester to meet and share ideas and possibly joint grading. Defining the roles of each instructor can be a problem, especially if they have dissimilar teaching philosophies. Students may also be resistant to the approach, as they are often more comfortable with the traditional lecture and note-taking method. Finally, administrative support must be strong, as this can be a very time consuming process, and the administration must be clear about the beneficial outcome.

Application

Howard Community College used team teaching in a very unique way for ENTR-215: Taking Innovation to Market. This course was developed as part of the Technology Assessment Program funded through a National Science Foundation Grant. According to the TAP-NSF grant Web site, www.inventiontobusiness.com, the purpose of the Technology Assessment Program is to "expand the innovation infrastructure in the Baltimore-Washington corridor and to speed technology transfer from the national research enterprise to the private sector.” The method used to teach ENTR-215 probably most closely resembles the "Complimentary Teaching” or the "Monitoring Teacher” techniques. The course was designed by a technology transfer expert from a local research lab who wrote the syllabus and specified the course assignments and grading. He also made contact and brought into the course several mentors from the technology transfer field in regional research labs. The mentors worked with student teams throughout the semester and met with the instructor outside of class at least once a month. A veteran instructor from Howard Community College also assisted with the course by being present in the classroom both for the lectures and the sessions with the research mentors. He was able to facilitate for the main instructor and mentors as well as for the students, both during and outside of class.

What made this such a unique team teaching experience was the use of mentors to guide the students through the technology transfer process. Student teams had assigned products that were developed by participating research labs to take through the technology transfer cycle. They followed the product from the research and development stage through marketing, licensing and eventually to royalty readiness in the marketplace. The class ran for 14 weeks and was structured with three weeks of lecture, then a week of meeting with mentors, three more weeks of lecture, meeting with the mentors, etc. The instructors incorporated full class discussion and small group discussion throughout the course. Working with their business mentors, students learned not just the technology transfer process and differing perspectives of experts in the field, but also teamwork, critical-thinking, and decision-making skills. The majority of the course grade was based on a formal team presentation made to a team of judges, community business leaders and venture capitalists. Prizes were awarded for the best team presentations.

Students in the class ranged in age from 15 to 62 (part of the NSF grant was to include high school students in the technology transfer learning). Because the class was so diverse in age, background and interests, working in teams gave them an additional opportunity to gain different perspectives. The instructors observed that many of the younger students had a greater knowledge of technology, but the life skills and business acumen of the older students factored into formulating plans for bringing the technology to the marketplace.

Results

The instructors reported that the best aspect of the class was that students were given technical expertise from different points of view. The most difficult aspect was the organizational part (mentors working in different organizations with different working schedules). None of them had ever participated in a team teaching experience prior to this class. The Howard Community College instructor felt that the contact with all of the outside mentors taught him aspects of research and development as well as technology transfer that he could not have obtained in any other way. He found it a personally enriching experience, but also a challenge to keep up with what is going on in the area of technology transfer.

Students also benefited from this team teaching approach. Among their comments are:

• "Meeting with mentors and inventors contributed more to my learning skills.”
• "I had a chance to interview an inventor and receive advice from mentors.”
• "I loved review sessions with mentors. I learned a lot about technology.”
• "We worked together as a team of people of different ages. We got to meet new and interesting people from (industry) such as inventors and mentors, and speakers from the technology transfer field.”

The course and the team teaching was deemed to be a success by all who participated--instructors, mentors and students. All agreed that it brought real-life experience and the relevance of technology transfer into the classroom. It will continue to be offered at Howard Community College as part of the Entrepreneurship Program.

References

Shafer, Ingrid (2000). Team teaching: Education for the future: Available:

http://www.usao.edu/~facshaferi/teamteaching.htm.

Davis, J.R. (1995) Interdisciplinary courses and team teaching: New arrangements for learning. Phoenix: ACE/oryx.

Maroney, Sharon A. (1995) Some notes on team teaching. Available: http://wiu.edu/users/mfsam1/Teamtchg.html. (April, 2007)

Goetz, Karin (2007). Perspectives on Team Teaching. Available: http://www.ucalgary.ca/~egallery/goetz.html. (April, 2007).

Robinson, B. and Schaible,R. (1995). Collaborative teaching: Reaping the benefits. College Teaching, 43(2), 57-60.

E-mail interview with Wayne Swann, Lead Instructor, (June, 2007). Howard Community College, Columbia, MD.21044.

E-mail interview with Lev Volynskiy, Assisting Instructor, (June, 2007). Howard Community College. Columbia, MD.21044.

Spoon River College, Canton, IL

Rural entrepreneurship depends on many elements. Beyond the excitement that a few entrepreneurs can bring to a community, there also needs to be an emphasis on "educating” many other segments of a community. In my opinion, rural entrepreneurship is significantly enhanced when a wide range of community leaders and stakeholders become more informed, and also receive some "learning experiences” that broaden vision and understanding of change that can positively impact community and economic development. Let me give you one example.

The area served by the rural community college I work for struggles with entrepreneurship and economic development, as do many such areas. However, through some small informal discussions a strong dialogue is developing among key leaders and stakeholders in one county. The goal of the college is to provide increased courses and programs, activities and events that support entrepreneurship. The Vice President for Institutional Advancement and Community Outreach, Carol Davis, and I collaborate on efforts to achieve these goals.

A key element for us is educating the folks in our district that need to be supportive of entrepreneurship. However, they often are not aware of issues affecting entrepreneurship in rural areas, or have in mind that there are two new distinctive population segments to gear entrepreneurship to in rural areas: the young people and the retiring baby boomers.

After some informal visits with the county board chairperson, county manager, and others, an idea was developed for the college and county board to co-host a summit on community and economic development. This is not just strategic planning, but fits the goals of the county in that regard in getting representatives from throughout the county to realize the connections of community development (education, transportation, Internet access, leadership, health care, etc.) with economic development (with an emphasis on how to increase equalized property values without raising individual/current taxes) that all comes under an umbrella that blends social and business entrepreneurship. This approach combines ideas such as economic gardening with community development, and the blend of the two is critical in rural areas.

The focuses of the summit are on the changes that can occur, the planning and implementation of objectives and tactics that are doable, and reducing the human tendency toward "we have never done it that way” and "we have always done it this way.” Getting these stakeholders involved in setting measurable benchmarks and regular interval reporting on progress toward the benchmarks reinforces that there is action, there is change, and that overall goals are coming closer to being realized. It is just like doing a business plan in a comprehensive manner…each step being completed thoroughly, but also linking to the next step…so that the end product is the new effort of entrepreneurship: resolving issues, taking advantage of opportunities, and (hopefully) offering a positive influence of change for our communities economically and socially.

Palo Alto Software

Fortunately, by its very nature, entrepreneurship education is a strong fundraising lure. Many funding sources understand its value to students who have hopes of starting their own businesses, to local business owners who need access to education and other resources to help them propel their companies forward, and to the broader community as a driver of economic development.

Potential funding sources that find entrepreneurship education appealing include some that previously may not have been on the radar screens of community college fundraisers. "Community colleges expand their donor base by offering entrepreneurship education,” says Tommy Goodrow, NACCE Founder and Vice President of Economic and Business Development at Springfield Technical Community College (STCC) in Springfield, MA. "It allows you to reach out to the community to touch the heartstrings of donors who support entrepreneurship education because of their own business success. By embracing entrepreneurship education, you provide the business community and entrepreneurs with a reason to support you with their time, treasure and talent.

"It’s important for any community college that is considering entrepreneurship education to build fundraising into that strategy,” adds Goodrow. "Because it has the potential to bring new funding sources to the table, you don’t have to cannibalize other programs to make your entrepreneurship program grow. When you fundraise for entrepreneurship education, it’s not against yourself; it’s to expand yourself.”

"Entrepreneurship education is a great connect with the community,” says Polly Binns, Executive Director of the Council for Resource Development in Washington, DC. "Most schools get regular support from small businesses in their community; you could always turn to them for an annual gift of $100, $250 or even $500 for the theater program or an athletic program, for example. But when they know that the community college has an academic discipline that supports being an entrepreneur, it is attractive in a different way to them. When they see that you have a program that can help them grow their business or give them skills they need to expand or grow in a different direction, they can be connected in a way that will bring in much bigger gifts.”

Build a Platform for Connecting

The fact that many–or even most–of the entrepreneurs you’ll want to reach out to are not alumni need not be a roadblock. When they were working together to develop funding for the Andrew M. Scibelli Enterprise Center at STCC, Tommy Goodrow and Gail Carberry found a creative way to reach out to entrepreneurs from throughout the region with the founding of the Western Massachusetts Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame in 2000. It is a model that can be duplicated at any community colleges campus.

"The thing with entrepreneurs is that they tend to be extremely proud of the efforts they’ve undertaken to create success,” says Gail Carberry, who was STCC’s Vice President of Institutional Advancement at the time and is now President of Quinsigamond Community College in Worcester, MA. "They are not bashful about wanting to share those stories of success, their frustrations and even some of their failures. We began recognizing their accomplishments through the Hall of Fame, inducting five or six entrepreneurs a year and over time there was not one of them who didn’t ante up some substantial funding to help with the Enterprise Center.

"The inductees were excited about the possibility that a college was moving toward creating more entrepreneurs and that valued their experience enough to lay them out as role models to another generation of entrepreneurs,” adds Carberry. "They felt it was something they wanted to invest in. So we found we could build a synergy and relationship with entrepreneurs who weren’t necessarily alumni.”

Another key point to note about entrepreneurs, points out Carberry, is that unlike major corporations, they have the ability to make decisions locally about contributing to an institution. "Our ability to have face-to-face, meaningful conversations with somebody who has resources and who has an interest in entrepreneurial education enables us to build a rapport for fundraising that we wouldn’t necessarily establish with an international company,” she says.

As Polly Binns points out, many entrepreneurship education programs are still in their early years and as they mature, their alumni are sure to play a bigger role in providing funding support. "Community colleges tend to do alumni fundraising programmatically; people are tied to their program, not to their class year,” she says. "Most entrepreneurship education programs are fairly new so the alumni may not have the wherewithal yet to make significant gifts. But as they become successful we’re going to see them turning to their community colleges and helping them.”

Start the Conversation

Last year in his first year as President of River Valley Community College in Claremont, NH, Steve Budd had many of the face-to-face conversations Carberry refers to. He devoted a significant portion of time to identifying and cultivating donors who fit this category. "Much of my first year involved going out and meeting with all sorts of people in the community, and in addition to meeting people from long-term existing businesses, I keyed in on the up-and-coming companies. I sat down with them and told them about the college and our interest in supporting entrepreneurship and looked for opportunities where they could share their expertise. Money was never the first question. I’ve been tapping these folks to come in and do curriculum development since we did not have an entrepreneurial option within our business associates degree program.”

Through carefully laying the groundwork, Budd was able to engage a local computer consulting firm, Red River Computer Company, to spend a semester reviewing the school’s business computing program and looking at trends in business development within the county that River Valley could serve with that curriculum, including providing opportunities for individuals to get involved in computer consulting for small businesses.

"We looked long and hard at what kind of curriculum would serve our students and prepare them to enter this entrepreneurial economy,” says Budd. "After working with Red River for six months, I secured a donation from them of all the hardware and software we needed to implement this new curriculum. So what began as outreach to share their expertise ended up in some real dollars.”

Foundations Are Interested, Too

NACCE members are well aware of how supportive the Kauffman Foundation, the Coleman Foundation and the John E. and Jeanne T. Hughes Foundation have been to a wide variety of schools. But these are not the only private foundations willing to provide significant funding to community colleges who are pursuing ambitious entrepreneurship education programs. We wrote in our Spring 2007 issue about the success that Cayuga Community College in Auburn, NY, has had in attracting funding for the Stardust Institute for Entrepreneurship. The latest news from Thomas Paczkowski, Professor of Business and Economics at Cayuga, is that the First Niagara Foundation has chipped in with a $150,000 grant for continued development of the Institute’s building. This sum is twice as large as the next largest gift the foundation has ever given.

"The Stardust Institute raised our profile and now others are expressing interest in becoming involved,” Paczkowski says. "I think part of the reason for private foundations to be interested in what we’re doing is because the entrepreneurship thinking that is taking place at colleges is consistent with what made the corporation successful that led to the foundation being established in the first place. I think foundations see what we’re doing as an innovative way of thinking and see it as a link to their past in terms of what made the company behind the foundation successful.”

In addition to tapping into private foundation funding, Steve Budd urges community colleges to be creative in pursuing entrepreneurship funding from long-standing government grants programs. "Look at programs such as the Strengthening Institutions Program out of the U.S. Department of Education,” he says. "Under these grants you can make the case that your college will become stronger by focusing curriculum development in entrepreneurship or by developing an entrepreneurial institute. Also, one of the concerns of the National Science Foundation is that technologies that are being developed by individuals aren’t getting to market. So they have a couple of programs that actually have entrepreneurship in their name. These are programs that community colleges have been getting funds from for a long time but not necessarily for entrepreneurship. But the opportunity to get support for your entrepreneurship program is there if you look for it.”

And that seems to be the real lesson about fundraising for entrepreneurship education. The potential is there if you just look for it!