Student Development

Textbooks and classroom time are not the only ways students develop and learn. It is essential to give them hands-on opportunities that better prepare them for life after graduation.

STUDENT DEVELOPMENT CENTER

• A place for community presentations, demonstrations, workshops, etc.
• Intergenerational exchange: storytelling, life skills, tools and trades
• Volunteerism - a place where students can be instructed in projects such as:

     o community event planning and support
     o municipal government
     o community gardens and ecological studies
     o parks and campground maintenance
     o senior citizen outreach

Volunteerism designed for young people can be an avenue for successful asset mapping and engagement. Students who participate in such projects can build a voice in the community as partners deserving of recognition.

TECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT

• Equipment upgrades to provide latest tools for optimum learning
• Speaker series: N.E. Ohio has a good representation of biotech, alternative

energy and green technology companies along with software developers and

computer services that can provide an interesting array of lectures
• Field trips, such as visits to local technology start-ups as well as business

incubators developing technological advancements.

ENTREPRENEURIAL DEVELOPMENT

Business
• Visits to start-ups, incubators (spawning a kitchen table idea)
• Visits to venture capital firms to learn the criteria for start-up funding
• Visits to investment banking firms to learn the process of taking a company

public (how and why it winds up on the stock market, a.k.a., IPO)
• Visits to the Cleveland Entrepreneur's Club monthly speaker series and the o

pportunity to meet successful local entrepreneurs
• Visits with the Entrepreneurial Learning Institute in Cleveland, a place where y

young people are encouraged to start their own small businesses

Social
• Emerging career sector: public service organizations, a.k.a., citizen sector
• No longer defined in the negative as "non-profit" or "non-governmental"
• Employment growth for this sector in the 1990's: 25% vs 4% overall
• An explosion of entrepreneurial opportunities fostering increased competition

   and collaboration, necessary skills for the 21st century
• On-line education in this field:
     o Ashoka: Innovators for the Public, www.ashoka.org
     o Tides Center, www.tidecenter.org
     o Youth Venture, www.youthventure.org
     o Duke University, www.fuqua.duke.edu
     o Columbia Business School, www.riseproject.org
     o Harvard Business School, www.hbs.edu/socialenterprise.org
     o Stanford Business School, www.gsb.stanford.edu/csi
• Visiting speaker series to include experts in the field such as: David Bornstein,

author of, "How to Change the World", a cornerstone book on the advent of

social entrepreneurialism; Bill Drayton, creator and CEO of Ashoka, a

pioneering foundation that has funded and supported thousands of social

entrepreneurs.
• Field trips: Civic Innovation Lab & One Community (social enterprise

organizations both located in Cleveland); Social Entrepreneurship at the

Weatherhead School of Management and other citizen sector organizations in

Northeast Ohio.