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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

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•  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

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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.

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TECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT

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•  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.

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