AASCU Re-imagining the First Year Project
ELI Philosophy
Entrepreneurship is more than an academic discipline and reaches far beyond the concept of traditional business creation and small business management. Entrepreneurship is a mindset; a framework for thinking and acting that can empower individuals and organizations to succeed in the 21st Century. And, in today’s rapidly changing, highly-complex world, the need for entrepreneurial thinkers at all levels of society has never been greater.
An entrepreneurial mindset can empower ordinary people to accomplish extraordinary things at all levels of society, across all disciplines, and in all sectors including public, private, and nonprofit. From preparing students to become workforce-ready graduates or next-generation innovators to elevating the entrepreneurial thinking of the existing workforce, an entrepreneurial mindset exposes opportunity, ignites ambition, and fosters innovation. It shifts everyday thinking into a new framework, empowering people to identify problems, deploy solutions, and make connections by using creative and critical thinking, communication, and collaboration.
ELI Description
The Entrepreneurial Learning Initiative (ELI) is a global thought leader dedicated to expanding human potential through entrepreneurial mindset education. ELI serves academic institutions, government agencies, profit and non-profit organizations around the world to empower their constituents with an entrepreneurial mindset through professional development training, facilitator certification, and curriculum content.
ELI’s Ice House Student Success Program
ELI is the creator of the Ice House Student Success Program, a student success course designed to equip students with the perseverance and determination of an entrepreneurial mindset at the onset of their academic journey, empowering them to take ownership of their future while helping them develop the attitudes, behaviors, and skills that will enable them to succeed academically and in life.
Inspired by the life story of Pulitzer nominee Clifton Taulbert in the companion text Who Owns the Ice House? Eight Life Lessons from an Unlikely Entrepreneur, the Ice House Student Success Program draws on eight core concepts to inspire and engage students, exposing them to entrepreneurial thinking, while immersing them in real-world entrepreneurial experiences that will enable them to develop entrepreneurial attitudes and skills. Throughout the program students are exposed to video case studies of real world, unlikely entrepreneurs to reinforce the core concepts.
ELI Services
AASCU’s Re-Imagining the First Year Experience will require institutional collaboration and entrepreneurial thinking to solve problems and bring about organizational change. ELI can help clients understand and embrace entrepreneurial culture across disciplines while empowering students to succeed in college and in life.
In addition to curriculum content, ELI also offers a variety of keynotes, professional development, and facilitator training programs designed to inspire and engage participants in the fundamental aspects of entrepreneurial thought, process, and culture.
Community Keynote presentations designed to cultivate an entrepreneurial culture by inspiring and engaging community stakeholders in the fundamental aspects of entrepreneurial thought and process, its universal application, and the limitless opportunities it can provide.
Professional Development Seminars and Workshops designed to empower individuals and transform organizational culture by encouraging and supporting the development of an entrepreneurial mindset.
Facilitator Training (public and onsite) to equip administrators, faculty, and staff with the necessary tools and techniques to effectively implement the Ice House Student Success Program. Participants who successfully complete the three-day training program will become certified to facilitate the Ice House Programs.
Master Facilitator Training is available to empower large-scale institutional partners with a train-the-trainer model that will enable them to scale and grow while maintaining best practices for course implementation and effectiveness.
Webinars covering a range of topics from basic program information and ongoing research to stakeholder engagement and best practices in entrepreneurial learning and student engagement.
Implementation Support including establishing outcomes, measuring outcomes, and assessing outcomes. ELI Staff will provide assistance in course competency alignment and syllabus and course schedule creation. ELI Staff also provide technical support in the form of course set-up, Learning Management System integration, and technical assistance, as needed. ELI Staff will seek and incorporate feedback to improve the program.
ELI Goals
Ice House has been successfully offered to diverse student populations in institutions across the country in institutions across the United States with significant results specifically in the area of student persistence as well as academic achievement. Student enrollments including interdisciplinary, developmental education, academic probation, career & technical, Adult Basic Education, athletes, scholars, high school dual credit, and TRIO students.
For example, one college required a student success course for developmental education students offering Ice House and a traditional student success course in a blind study to compare results. They found a 28% impact in student persistence with 83% of first-time and transfer students who completed Ice House re-enrolling the next semester compared to 55% of first-time and transfer students who did not take the course. In addition, 7% more of Ice House students stayed in their course in the beginning weeks compared to the traditional student success course curriculum.
Another college offered Ice House in a Highest Enrollment, Lowest Completion course to their most at-risk students and did a comparative data study with their traditional curriculum. They saw a 42% Impact on GPA over a three-year period, with 74% of Ice House students receiving GPAs in the 3.0 – 4.0 range, 32% more than non-Ice House students. More significantly, 100% of the at-risk students completed Ice House and 90% returned the following semester. The course was removed from the Highest Enrollment, Lowest Completion list.
In addition to a number of U.S. rollouts of Ice House, ELI’s most significant partner, Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM) in Mexico, also known as TEC, is piloting Ice House with 9,000 students in Spring 2017. TEC has a global presence and is considered the most distinguished private educational system in Mexico. TEC’s vision is: “We educate leaders who have an entrepreneurial spirit, a humanistic outlook and are internationally competitive.” ELI has trained 188 Prepa TEC teachers as Certified Ice House Facilitators to teach the program in English.
An entrepreneurial mindset offers a new perspective, one that not only engages students, but also helps shift their perspective, connecting their college experience to a compelling future. ELI’s goal is to scale the impact, while continuing to measure and evaluate student success (mindset, engagement, persistence). With your partnership, we can redefine what it means for students to succeed in the 21st Century.
Related Work & References
ELI serves organizations around the world to empower their constituents with an entrepreneurial mindset including, in part, the Global Entrepreneurship Congress, Tecnologico de Monterrey, Columbian Ministry of Education, SEBRAE (Brazil), City Government of Buenos Aires (Argentina), Banco Popular de Puerto Rico, U.S. State Department, Kauffman Foundation, Eurasia Foundation, and Cisco Entrepreneur Institute. Our work has been presented to the United Nations General Assembly in New York, the Papal Council for Peace and Justice at the Vatican in Rome, and the European Commission in Brussels.
Ice House programs have been implemented at community colleges and universities throughout the U.S. and abroad including, in part:
| University of California Los Angeles | University of Connecticut |
| West Virginia University | Utah State University |
| Kent State University | Clemson University |
| Augustana University | Lindenwood University |
| East Central University | Montclair State University |
| Western State Colorado University | Eastern New Mexico University |