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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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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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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A Cascade of Job Satisfaction in Oklahoma
June 23, 2022
In an era when workplace dissatisfaction seems to be at an all-time high, Stacey Bolin is a welcome breath of fresh air. She’s an associate professor who teaches entrepreneurship and computer courses at East Central University in Ada, Oklahoma, and she directs the school’s Wilburn L. Smith Center for Entrepreneurship. “This is the best job in the world,” Bolin said. “I love it.” Her enthusiasm is contagious. Students in Bolin’s courses routinely earn awards…
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Kindling a ‘Go Before You Know’ Mentality Across Northeast Iowa
April 28, 2022
When Northeast Iowa Community College offered its first Ice House courses in 2020, it ignited what one faculty member described as a “virtuous brush fire.” People would hear about the Ice House program and want to get involved, explained Seth Gilbert, NICC Director of Organizational Development. That’s especially impressive considering that the college has 12 campuses and centers across eight counties covering 5,000 square miles of rural northeastern Iowa. The college implemented the Ice…
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At Daytona State, Curiosity Turns to Conviction About the Benefits of an Entrepreneurial Mindset
March 15, 2022
In early 2021, Daytona State College received a grant for nearly $100,000 to introduce students in its Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs to an entrepreneurial mindset. Looking back, the college seems prescient. Its Entrepreneurial Mindset Opportunity (EMO) initiative is intentional about helping students recognize the ways to harness their own life lessons in the pursuit of opportunities to create value for others. In addition, the EMO initiative also gives students the confidence and…
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Changing Mindsets in a County of Contrasts
February 25, 2022
If you look at a map of distressed communities within the U.S., the southern and eastern states are overrepresented. If you zoom in on Appalachia and then North Carolina, you’ll find Robeson County, the state’s most-distressed county in 2021. But, if you were to look at Robeson County in another way—as an area full of rich culture and interesting individuals—it would place near the top of the list. For example, U.S. News ranks it as…
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