EduPreneurial Spirit
Drawing from your own background and experiences, please give practical examples of how the EduPreneurial Spirit can benefit the students, the employees, and the school.
This is an incredible time that we are living in. I have seen through the examples of my own life what the EduPreneurial spirit is all about. In my current position, I work with, and beside students from all walks of life. I have to wear many hats as well as keep a vision for the students. I take this spirit into the playing field of the classroom and bring examples to life. I want all students to succeed, not only while they are "Students", but as in their life. I see the vision of the classroom only being a practice field for the real game of life. This starts by accepting the fact that we have only control of how we see our lives and what we must do with the choices we make.
I understand the idea of having a quota, and playing the numbers game. I see students as customers and when they leave school, I try to understand what happened. I feel that this was the students choice, but the whole school has a part in this. from the time they call, until many years after graduation, the School should be involved and encourage the students to use the resources that are available. When students leave, this not only hurts them, but the family that supports them will have an effect. Our community has lost money and this will continue to develop a cycle. We live in an area that has both ups and downs in the job market. The students we have, come from backgrounds where they are charting in new and healthy waters. Most of these students do nopt know what it is, or how to achieve what it is they are trying to do. Being educated is only half of the challenge. the other half of the equation is what do you do with what you have?
In simple terms, I tell the students, "You have been given a wonderful gift. It is now up to you to take on what you have been given and share what you know." Using what has been given to you, and living, engaging and empowering others is and should be part of the bargain. If the student feels that yes this is indeed what has been given, they will tell others and the life blood of the school will be strong and retention will continue for years after they have left school. We are here to change peoples lives. The choice is what happens inside the student and how far down the rabbit hole do they want to go to explore themselves. When we learn to explore ourselves and our minds what a world we can make and produce and live and grow.
Mr. Miles,
Your comments on the EduPreneurial Spirit were very well said. I agree that being educated is only half of the challenge and the other half being what you do with what you have. Helping the students understand the importance of an education but also offering them skills to help them be successful in business are helpful with their success overall.
What are some of the other benefits to staff and faculty members who embrace the EduPreneurial Spirit?
Staff and facululty share the moments that have real value for the students. We have achievement ceremonys after every term that both staff and students gear up for.
the biggest high for me is to see a student walk at graduation. This is the best part of the job. You have a student that has been told they can't do this. After month's of practice, preparation, and practice. After doing all the steps that they have to go through, and all the sacrafice, it is time to walk. I tell students this a lot. It does not matter how long it takes, what is important is that you passed the finish line. You can and will do this!
With energy like this, we build. Build on future students and future success. When we have seasoned instructors, staff and faculty, we know that to have a balanced eduPreneurial spirit and attitude. This means from start to finish, we to be at our best as a group. If someone is not at their peak performance, we lose. The end result is that the student loses. This is a balanced cycle. Model to the masses and they follow what they paracticed. We need to believe that everyone can make the choice to succeed. This helps with building moral for all levels. If our student succeed than we succeed. We need eachother to grow and build.
I have this theory that I pass along to instructors as well as students. What you put into anything, is what you put into everything. The little and big things that achieve greatness starts from the start. We are taking our students and passing the torch on to the next generation of the work force. They have to compete for a job and maintain life. If we do not, these are the students who will take care of us when we are old. I try to put this in terms of Karma. What comes around, will go around. Take care of our students, we will all reap the rewards. This starts with planting a seed. This seed can grow into the biggest, brightest, and strongest tree it can be. We are in a win-win situation. We do have the power to change the world. One seed, one step at a time.
Thank you for your well thought out response Mr. Miles. I appreciate your passion for what you do.
All parties benefit from the EduPreneurial Spirit. The students feels that someone is in their corner. They know that the staff and faculty are there to help them realize their goal. We do this by encouraging them and by making sure they accomplish academic and attendance goals as well. The staff and faculty benefit because of the personal reward of helping someone accomplish their dream and become a successful professional. We are in a business but also a business of changing lives. This is an intricate part of what we do and what gives us the biggest reward at the end of the day. As previously mentioned, positive advertising by word of mouth is an extremely important component to expansion and community awareness. We can then have a reputation of a successful school business and helping our students through their program until completion. When everyone is devoted to student sucess, we will have a successful business.
Well said Andrea. I especially like your comments on everyone being devoted to success. It takes a whole school to graduate a student and it's very helpful when they all have the same EduPreneurial Spirit.
The reality of today's market driven world confirms that schools are business too. However, that reality should not be taken as negative per se. By learning strategies from a business point of view we can improve our offering, improve our services, increase retention and, in turns, become profitable.
In my experience, we should begin with a quality product, emphasizing in the quality of education, not a mediocre one. Then, creating a positive, learning environment in the institution, from employess, to students, to the immediate community. Of course, the student supporting services, ongoing faculty and staff training, updated resources, and recognitions will promote retention and, as said earlier, profits will follow. A profitable institution, then, should compensate its workers for their committment and effort.
You've got it Rafael. When we understand the business point of view, it does help us offer a better "product" to our students.
We have had a selection of students at our school that struggled with grades and performance. But, by using motivational techniques, these students eventually graduated from the course. Thanks to the strength of the staff and the quality of the curriculum, these students recommended the school to three other students who all eventually enrolled. This is a great example of the EduPreneurial spirit.
Thanks for your input Paul. You've got it! That's a great example of being both a great educator and helping the business be successful.
From the enrollment process to the graduation ceremony, our number one priority is to encourage the students to think: "My school," rather than their school. This is accomplished by allowing them to be involved in some of the decision making that affects them and the school. When we are formulating plans to give the school a facelift, we include the students in color selection, decorations and a theme for each classroom. In addition, we supply them with a budget to work within for the project. The ideas, enthusiasm and involvement has been overwhelming.
Donald, thank you for sharing your examples of how you help your students feel a part of the school. This allows the students to embrace the EduPreneurial spirit and share it with the staff and faculty.
I think its interesting how often employees of a university seem to miss the boat on how important this concept is. I am often surprised by how many employees believe their job is either to educate or to focus on revenue. This silo type of mentality really limits the effectiveness of an employee. Currently, our university is making a concerted effort at establishing project teams that are formulated with members of several different departments. By forcing the success of the department to be dependant on several employees from different departments we are able to help the employees realize the value of each department and how important the mission of each department is. We are seeing tremendous results in how the individual employee recognizes the value of an "edupreneurial spririt".
Thanks for your comments Chad. This is a great example of how to help the whole organization embrace the EduPreneurial Spirit.
I think that most educators miss the importance of the "business side" of our sector because they are unfamiliar with it. Many instructors attended what I call "weed out" colleges(those that don't care if students drop out) and thus think that is the way it is suppose to be. We need to educate them from the beginning about the difference.
Our school for years had a course that served a very narrow section of the offshore industry. This section of the industry also had a vary high turnover rate. As a result any student that left the industry had no where to continue to use his education. As a result the staff expanded the program to include modules that would be valuable to the student in more than one industry sector. The result was a more valuable employee and more than one career path for each student, better earnings potential and increased word of mouth sales. Win/Win
Great idea!!!
It is important that school employees also understand the business side of our sector.
I think that this is a really valid comment. I have experienced exactly this phenomenon with some of the instructors I work with, who seem to think that if there are some students who just don't get it, that is their tough luck! It's vital to make all educators aware of the importance of student retention; not only for "business" reasons, but because we strive to help all of our students succeed, achieve their goals and change their lives for the better.
Being one of the few faculty members that come from a heavy sales background- I really relate to the “edupreneurial spiritâ€. Although everyone does their individual jobs quite well- I look forward to sharing with them the bigger picture and how we all work for the student. Ultimately the student is our Boss.
