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Kauffman Foundation-Supported Online Entrepreneurship Learning
Curriculum Launches
The Ice House Entrepreneurship program teaches the unlimited
opportunities of the entrepreneurial mindset through examples
(KANSAS CITY, Mo.) - A new, inspiring online education program
designed to engage students in the unlimited opportunities that an
entrepreneurial mindset can provide has launched. Backed by the
support of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the world's
largest foundation dedicated to advancing entrepreneurship, the
Ice House Entrepreneurship Program is an interactive online
learning program that enables participants to learn from the
firsthand experiences of successful real-world entrepreneurs.
Created through a collaboration with the Entrepreneurial Learning
Initiative and Pulitzer Prize nominee Clifton Taulbert,
the Ice House Entrepreneurship Program is a two-part learning
project:
The Book: Based on the personal experience of author Clifton
Taulbert, Who Owns the Icehouse? is a powerful and
compelling story that draws on the entrepreneurial influence and
eight essential life-lessons Taulbert gained from his Uncle Cleve,
an unlikely entrepreneur in the segregated South. More information
about the book is available here.
The Course: Based on the eight life-lessons described in the
book, the interactive online program combines narrated chalkboard
presentations with video interviews and case studies featuring
modern-day examples of those who, like Taulbert's Uncle Cleve, have
triumphed over hardship and adversity by embracing an
entrepreneurial mindset.
In addition to the narrated chalkboard presentations, each lesson
includes individual learning assessments, discussion topics and
assignments that are designed to maximize comprehension while
encouraging real-world application of the core concepts.
"The Kauffman Foundation is proud to sponsor this powerful new
education program," said Thom Ruhe, director of
entrepreneurship at the Kauffman Foundation. "Drawing on the
experiences of real-world entrepreneurs provides a powerful model
that can encourage and empower people from all walks of life."
The Ice House Entrepreneurship Program already has garnered the
attention of educators, community development groups and other
organizations across the United States and throughout the world. A
longtime leader in entrepreneurship education, Johnson County
Community College has already embraced the program.
"The Ice House project has provided us with the vehicle to make our
vision of an entry-level entrepreneurship course a reality," said
Professor and Department Chair Donna Duffey at the Johnson County
Community College in Overland Park, Kan. "Our goal has been to
create a course that would introduce students to the true
entrepreneurial mindset and its true economic and social context by
studying the unlimited opportunities that an entrepreneurial mindset
can provide. The Ice House Project is allowing us to meet this goal
for our students."
The course also includes access to an online entrepreneurial
learning community that enables participants and facilitators to
share their knowledge and experience with other entrepreneurs and
educators within their own communities as well as others across the
country and around the world.
About the Kauffman Foundation
The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation is a private nonpartisan
foundation that works to harness the power of entrepreneurship and
innovation to grow economies and improve human welfare. Through its
research and other
initiatives, the Kauffman Foundation aims to open young people's
eyes to the possibility of entrepreneurship, promote
entrepreneurship education, raise awareness of
entrepreneurship-friendly policies, and find alternative pathways
for the commercialization of new knowledge and technologies. In
addition, the Foundation focuses on initiatives in the Kansas City
region to advance students' math and science skills, and improve the
educational achievement of urban students, including the Ewing
Marion Kauffman School, a college preparatory charter school for
middle and high school students set to open in 2011. Founded by late
entrepreneur and philanthropist Ewing Marion Kauffman, the
Foundation is based in Kansas City, Mo. and has approximately $2
billion in assets.
For more information, visit
www.kauffman.org, and follow the Foundation on
www.twitter.com/kauffmanfdn and
www.facebook.com/kauffmanfdn.
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