On June 30th, Mountain Empire Community College and the National Consortium for Entrepreneurship Education (EntreEd) partnered to deliver a hands-on workshop for local K-12 educators to learn about, experience, and integrate entrepreneurship education into their classrooms this upcoming school year. A total of 16 educators, ranging from school principals to classroom teachers, joined the team at Mountain Empire Community College’s campus to engage in a day of learning.
Attendees participate in an Invention Activity during the workshop.
The workshop was facilitated by by Amber Ravenscroft, Program Manager of the America’s Entrepreneurial Schools initiative and Manager of Innovation for The EdVenture Group. The training featured sessions on entrepreneurial mindset and entrepreneurship infusion in the classroom, with hands-on activities for educators to take back to their students. Teachers participated in creativity challenges, learned strategies to foster entrepreneurial mindsets both within themselves and with their students, and explored best practices in infusing entrepreneurship into core academic subject areas. The workshop concluded with a design thinking workshop, where participants designed entrepreneurship projects for their school or classroom. Schools in attendance will be eligible to receive their America’s Entrepreneurial School designation, which recognizes any K-12 school that provides entrepreneurship education to every student, every year.
“[The training] expanded my ideas of the use of entrepreneurship ideas in the classroom,” said one attendee.
Educators walked away with tangible resources and actionable strategies to begin implementing upon the school year’s start this August.
“It’s the first time I’ve actually enjoyed a workshop in a very long time,” said another attendee.
Attending the workshop were Robert Underwood, St. Paul Elementary; Lisa Addington-Mason, Wise Primary School; Angela Greear, Central High School; Barbara Hass, Coeburn Primary; Holly Tucker, L.F. Addington Middle School; Jared Coffey, Eastside High School; Kelly Foster, J.W. Adams Combined School; Kara Adkins, Coeburn Middle School; Vicky Welch, Union Middle School; Jodie Bowen, Wise County Career-Technical Center; Kim Mabe, Union High School; Allie Brickey, Union Primary School; Jacqueline Pauley, Flatwoods Elementary School; Vicki Snodgrass, Thomas Walker High School; Jessica Trent, Thomas Walker High School; and Jolene Lambert, Jonesville Middle School.
Participants present their school-based entrepreneurship projects after a hands-on design-thinking workshop.
The partnership between Mountain Empire Community College and EntreEd is part of a three-year, Appalachian Regional Commission POWER grant which was funded in 2016. Wrapping up in August 2019, the grant has provided entrepreneurship experiences to over 45,000 Appalachian students throughout Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. The project is a collaborative partnership between EntreEd, The National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship (NACCE), The EdVenture Group, and the National Center for Resource Development and eight local community colleges throughout the region. To learn more about the initiative, visit http://www.entre-ed.org/ today.