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.