On May 24 and 25, Matewan PK-8 in Mingo County, West Virginia welcomed EntreEd for an entrepreneurship and STEM programming day. About 300 Matewan students participated in the event.
Toi Hershman, EntreEd VP of Programming, and Jenny Totten, EntreEd Regional Director, were joined by Mariana Evans and Rebecca Pratt of Southern WV Community and Technical College. With the help of Matewan teachers, the team worked with students for a variety of activities that involved entrepreneurship and STEM. “It was a great day and a great experience,” said Hershman, “We had an absolute blast working with these fantastic young men and women. The faculty at Matewan are some of the most caring and supportive teachers we have ever had the pleasure to work with.”
Students participated in a prototyping challenge where they created prototypes to solve real-world problems. They experienced an agriculture and hydroponics lab where they made hydroponics kits. They competed in a rapid prototyping activity where they created planes and budgeted currency while learning about risk and tradeoffs. They also engaged in a personal branding activity where they each created a unique brand for themselves.
Cindy Calfee and Barbara Fields, Principal and Vice Principal of Matewan PK-8, have invited EntreEd to the school several times over the years to work with teachers and students. Matewan PK-8 is designated as one of EntreEd’s America’s Entrepreneurial Schools. The America’s Entrepreneurial Schools (AES) Initiative is a program designed to recognize K-12 schools that have provided entrepreneurship education to every student, every year.
Programming was made possible through EntreEd’s Fostering Self ESTEAM in Appalachia’s Emerging Workforce project, funded by the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) and the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation. The project helps middle and high school programs in a seven-state region infuse Entrepreneurship into academic classrooms with a focus on STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) initiatives. To learn more about the project, contact Amber Ravenscroft, ESTEAM Project Director, at aravenscroft@edvgroup.org.