Diversity, Inclusion, and Racial Justice in Entrepreneurial Mindset Education
September 6, 2023
A Call to Listen I originally wrote this post as a response to a very important question. “How do white and non-black educators promote self-empowerment through entrepreneurship without invalidating the experiences of Black and Brown people?” How do we acknowledge the reality of systemic racism while teaching about the benefits of entrepreneurial thinking as a path to empowerment? The events of recent years have put a global spotlight on the systematic racism that bars Black…
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Measuring The Entrepreneurial Mindset With Dr. Jennifer Hall
July 6, 2023
Welcome to the latest episode of the Entrepreneurial Mindset Project! In this special edition, we’re taking a different approach as we delve into the fascinating realm of the entrepreneurial mindset through the lens of psychology. Our guest today is Dr. Jennifer Hall, co-author of the Entrepreneurial Mindset Profile—a groundbreaking psychometric tool that assesses the entrepreneurial strengths of individuals across various domains, from students to organizational leaders and aspiring entrepreneurs. Dr. Hall and her team…
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Denver Educator Does a 180 in His Beliefs About Businesspeople
September 19, 2022
When Adam Melnick was in college, he was sure of one thing: Business people were greedy and never wanted to be one. Fast forward two decades, and his perspective have shifted by 180 degrees. Although he isn’t currently in business himself, as an assistant professor of management at the Metropolitan State University of Denver, he teaches others the mindset and skills they’ll need to be successful. “I just completely fell in love with entrepreneurship…
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How a Minnesota Teen Brought Her Entrepreneurial Spirit to Life
September 6, 2022
By the time Saint Paul College Business Instructor Linda Michel met Saint Paul Public Schools student Sandy Lee, the teen had already started two businesses—before age 17. Lee was enrolled in the Postsecondary Enrollment Options (PSEO) program, which lets high schoolers earn college credits for free. She gravitated toward the entrepreneurial mindset in the Ice House model Michel uses within her course. Lee said that just as Uncle Cleve had responded to a need…
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A Husband-and-Wife Facilitation Team Strengthens the Entrepreneurial Community in Central Illinois
August 30, 2022
To get a feel for the Ice House courses facilitated by husband-and-wife team Dr. Jeremy “JK” Morris and Dr. Juanita Morris, just listen to their weekly podcast, Thee Morris Code. The guests laugh and banter, but they’re also willing to display a remarkable degree of vulnerability. This candid nature was especially evident in July when the Morrises spent the month highlighting past Ice House participants at Richland Community College’s EnRich program in Decatur, Illinois. …
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How the Ice House Model Helps Independence Community College Fulfill Its Economic Development Mission
August 3, 2022
The small southeastern Kansas community of Independence has a healthy downtown. This is true despite setbacks in industries like coal mining and oil production. Business coach and longtime resident Jim Correll believes the Ice House model deserves a share of the credit because many successful downtown business owners have participated in the Entrepreneurial Mindset course through Independence Community College’s Fab Lab ICC—including the current president of the Chamber of Commerce. For the past decade,…
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Why A Little Mental Turbulence Can Be a Good Thing for Early-Stage Startups
July 26, 2022
After welcoming each new cohort of idea-driven participants to Entrepreneurial Mindset Training, facilitator Joel Barrett issues a warning: Turbulence Ahead. Barrett is a business development consultant with the Missouri Small Business Development Center (SBDC) at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. He and his colleagues use the Ice House model to redefine entrepreneurship as the self-directed pursuit of opportunities to create value for others by discovering and solving problems—and he has firsthand experience with the…
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How the Ice House Program Fits into 30 Years of Entrepreneurship Education at a Kansas College
July 22, 2022
Johnson County Community College in Kansas City, Kansas, is a pioneer in entrepreneurship education. In fact, many of its students today weren’t even born yet when JCCC launched its entrepreneurship program in 1992. Adjunct Professor Joe Magnant has been in a prime position to observe the program’s ebbs and flows over the past three decades. For 15 of those years, he’s been riding the current along with the college as one of its go-to…
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Tips for Facilitating from the Hampshire County Sheriff’s Department
July 20, 2022
Many Ice House facilitators say their course participants don’t need facilitators to teach them entrepreneurial skills. The participants possess them already. So the issue is how they’re choosing to apply those skills. Take the participants in the Ice House classes offered by the Hampshire County Sheriff’s Department to the men in its correctional facility. “They do have an entrepreneurial mindset, but they’re using it in a different way because they’re driven by other things,”…
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