Case Studies

A Wyoming College Redesigns the Student Success Experience to Focus on Mindset   Location: Cheyenne, Wyoming Number of employees: 362 Number of full-time students: 2,827 Total number of students enrolled on campus: 5,307 Median student age: 28 Participants in Strategies for Success courses since fall of 2020: 700   OVERVIEW: The region around Laramie County Community College in Cheyenne, Wyoming, is a microcosm of the challenges facing many parts of the U.S. Even before the…

Spurring Socio-Economic Mobility in Two Florida Counties   Location: 5 campuses and 1 center in Florida’s Pasco and Hernando counties Total enrollment: 11,500 students Number of employees: 948 Percentage of female students: 67%   OVERVIEW: Pasco-Hernando State College serves two counties where the median wage is lower than in the nearest large metro areas, St. Petersburg and Tampa. In Pasco County, the median wage is $50,417; in Hernando County, it’s $46,030, more than $7,000 below…

Location: North Omaha, Nebraska Launch date: 2019 Graduation rate: 86% Participants who have completed the program: 18 Formerly incarcerated: 20% Past participants who serve as social models: 60% Microgrants awarded: 25  Business revenue generated: $1.5 million OVERVIEW: In North Omaha, as in many inner-city communities across the United States, residents tend to spend their disposable income elsewhere. There’s little sense of economic cooperation, and entrepreneurial skill sets often manifest in unhealthy behaviors. Pastor Myron Pierce…

Location: Erie, Pennsylvania District size: 11,000 students at 16 schools Year of implementation: 2017 Number of middle schoolers who have completed the program: 3,000 Overview In early August of 2021, the school board of Erie’s Public Schools approved a new social studies curriculum for the district’s seventh-graders—and officially gave its blessing for the Ice House Middle School Edition to be taught for an entire quarter. It’s a confirmation of the innovative program’s success over the…

Location: Perry Local Schools in Perry, Ohio K-12 enrollment: 1,800 Middle school program established: 2019 Student program enrollment to date: 44 Overview: This small school district lies 30 miles east of Cleveland in Lake County, once the nursery capital of America. Industry has largely replaced the region’s agricultural foundation, including a nearby power plant. Like many districts, Perry has limited financial resources. But, when the district’s leaders believe a program will benefit their students, “they…

Location: St. Louis, Missouri Enrollment: 815 Number of full-time faculty: 70 School founded: 1850 Dunne Family Innovation Commons opened: 2018 Students who have completed Foundations of Entrepreneurship (Ice House): 400 Overview Christian Brothers College High School (CBC) is an all-male Catholic high school in suburban St. Louis. It offers a college preparatory setting where students’ educational programs are fully customized based on their individual abilities, strengths, challenges, and interests. For example, incoming students can choose…

Overview An entrepreneurial mindset is supported across all grade levels at this independent school for ages 18 months to grade 12 in suburban Cleveland. Through both academic and extracurricular programs, Gilmour Academy students learn that “profit is not the only criterion for creating a successful enterprise; entrepreneurism is about following one’s passion and making a difference in the lives of others.” The Challenge Many high school students who are self-motivated to pursue small businesses, career…

Since 2014, the Entrepreneurial Learning Initiative (ELI) and Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (TEC) have partnered to successfully deliver entrepreneurial mindset curriculum to approximately 7,500 high school students across 37 campuses in Mexico. The partnership consisted of customizing ELI’s Ice House Student Success Program for delivery in Mexico, the training of approximately 200 teachers at TEC’s Preparatory school (Prepa Tec) to facilitate the program and establishing outcomes and evaluations tools to measure the impact. The program was…

One Ice House Facilitator sets out to infiltrate her region with an entrepreneurial mindset.  Overview When Judy Raper and a colleague from Greenfield Community College (GCC) attended Entrepreneurial Mindset Facilitator Training in the summer of 2020, she was less than two years into a new role at the college after 32 years in student affairs. The Community Engagement role still felt like a new world—and Raper was unsure if she would succeed within it. “Entrepreneurship…