The Untapped Potential of Unlikely Entrepreneurs
November 16, 2021
This post was originally published by the Independence Daily Reporter in the November 10th, 2021 issue. Read the text online here, the article is on page 3. What does the future hold for those who do not do well in school? Each year more than a million high school students drop out of high school. That’s nearly 7,000 per day. And in many cases, they do so not because they are incapable but because they…
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How A Single Teenage Mom Became A Successful Entrepreneur With Sirena Moore-Thomas
November 11, 2021
In this episode, Gary is joined by serial entrepreneur and public speaker Sirena Moore-Thomas. In the conversation, Sirena and Gary unpack her early life and how her experiences shaped her trajectory. As a single teenage mother of twins, raised in public housing, with no college degree, Sirena is the epitome of an unlikely entrepreneur. Her accomplishments—not the least of which is co-founding a million-dollar cleaning business with a few hundred dollars in her spare time—have garnered…
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Tackling Social Injustice Through an Entrepreneurial Mindset
October 27, 2021
The opportunities and resources for Black entrepreneurs and minority-led startups often presuppose a skill set that people who grew up in poverty don’t have. “A lot of the circles of support are for middle-class Black people,” explained Pastor Myron Pierce. Pierce serves as the pastor of the Mission Church in North Omaha, Nebraska. “There’s a language you have to speak, systems and structures and culture you need to know about—and that makes it hard…
Read morePlanting Seeds of Entrepreneurial Thinking—With a Homegrown Twist
October 13, 2021
One of the preeminent entrepreneurial thinkers in higher education lives and works in an unlikely place: a metro area of 246,000 residents just a couple of hours south of the Canadian border. Bree Langemo, lawyer and educator, exemplifies ELI’s definition of entrepreneurship. That is the self-directed pursuit of opportunities to create value for others, whatever the field or location. Langemo directs the Entrepreneurship Center at Concordia College’s Offutt School of Business in Moorhead, Minnesota.…
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How Wartime Survival Taught Me To Think Like An Entrepreneur With Faris Alami
As a Palestinian refugee growing up in Kuwait, Faris Alami was a straight-A student on his way to university and a stable career. And then life intervened when the Iraqi invasion turned his world upside down. Fresh out of high school, in the midst of a war zone, Faris found himself in charge of a local grocery store, a precarious experience that he barely escaped with his life. Yet, it was an experience that…
Read moreContagious Enthusiasm for Entrepreneurial Thinking in Bermuda
September 28, 2021
Having a second job—or even a third or fourth—is typical for the staff who work with small and medium-sized businesses at the Bermuda Economic Development Corporation (BEDC). These entrepreneurial thinkers are passionate about the self-directed pursuit of opportunities to create value for others. Donte Hunt, Ondreyah Rochester, and Dennis Carter all work within the Micro, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise (MSME) unit. Hunt does graphic design and creates websites. Additionally, he is in the last…
Read moreThis Trailblazing Program Shaped the Ice House Middle School Edition
September 21, 2021
There’s growing evidence about the teaching strategies and learning approaches that work best for middle schoolers. Researchers highlight early adolescence as a time of collaboration, curiosity, and choice. The plasticity of the teenage brain makes middle school a prime opportunity for instilling an entrepreneurial mindset. And social studies teacher Dave Cross at Strong Vincent Middle School in Erie, Pennsylvania, knows a thing or two about that. Innovating in Erie’s Public Schools In 2017, Cross and…
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William Snoddy: From Solitary Confinement To Budding Entrepreneur
September 17, 2021
Going to prison is a serious, at some points depressing, form of solitary confinement. It is commonly seen as a depressing community, and released inmates are usually discriminated against, if not entirely rejected by society. But in reality, prison time can provide the needed reinvention one truly needs. In this episode, new entrepreneur William Snoddy joins us to discuss his life leading up to and including his entrepreneurial journey. After going to prison several…
Read moreA Florida College Removes Barriers to Entrepreneurship Education
September 10, 2021
The Broward College Entrepreneurship Experience (BCEx) is an ambitious framework designed to expand ideation and value creation among the college’s 63,000 students. In addition to creating thousands of entrepreneurs, the bigger goal is to create a culture shift that instills an entrepreneurial mindset across Broward College—impacting faculty, staff, and students. BCEx uses the Ice House model to introduce entrepreneurship as the self-directed pursuit of opportunities to create value for others, whether in their business…
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