What Is Self-Directed Learning (and Why Do We Need It)?

June 16, 2021

  Children are innately curious—sometimes to the point where they overwhelm the adults around them with their constant questions. One can easily imagine that the old expression “Curiosity killed the cat” was first spoken by a parent who was tired of being asked “Why?” for the millionth time by a curious preschooler. This curiosity implies a drive towards self-directed learning. The desire to learn and explore is the driving force behind human development. It manifests…

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Categories: Entrepreneurial Learning, Entrepreneurship Education, Human Potential, Redefining Entrepreneurship

Developing an Entrepreneurial Mindset on the Path to Recovery

May 14, 2021

    Judy Raper never saw herself as someone whose entrepreneurial mindset would make an impact on her community. She might have pointed to her younger sister, a CEO, as the mover and shaker in the family.  Then Raper learned a new definition of entrepreneurship as the self-directed pursuit of opportunities to create value for others. She realized that by creating value for others, we empower ourselves. She realized that the Ice House training she…

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Categories: Entrepreneurial Culture, Entrepreneurial Leadership, Human Flourishing, Human Potential, Partner News, Redefining Entrepreneurship

Graduating as an Underdog Can Be a Good Thing

May 11, 2021

  Students earning their college diplomas this year face a sea of uncertainty. While hiring predictions are up from where they were in 2020, they are still not back to pre-pandemic levels. Hands-on internships were (and still are) limited. Job searches and interviews are virtual. It’s enough to make a new college graduate feel like an underdog — and that can be a powerful secret weapon. Over the past 25 years, ELI Founder & CEO, Gary…

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Categories: Human Flourishing, Human Potential

Pulling Students Off the Conveyor Belt Ride Through Life

May 6, 2021

Throughout the past eight years, Professor Lisa Banks has used the Ice House Entrepreneurship Program with more than 800 students at Mott Community College in Flint, Michigan. They always come away from her courses with information they will use in their lives. Even if they discover that they’re not a good fit for a career running their own business. Banks herself has lived out the definition of entrepreneurship as the self-directed pursuit of opportunities to…

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Categories: Entrepreneurship Education, Human Potential, Student Completion, Student Success

Entrepreneurial Mindset Imperative Cover

The Time Is Now: The Entrepreneurial Mindset Imperative

April 13, 2021

Im-per-a-tive (Noun): An essential or urgent thing; of vital importance Download the White Paper Here Life today is filled with imperatives. Everything seems urgent and critically important in vying for our attention daily. As such, when we sat down to write our new white paper, we did not decide to call it the Entrepreneurial Mindset Imperative lightly. Between the pandemic, political strife, social strain, and massive changes in education and the workplace, the world is making…

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Categories: Entrepreneurial Culture, Entrepreneurial Leadership, Entrepreneurial Learning, Entrepreneurial Mindset, Entrepreneurship Education, Human Flourishing, Human Potential