DREAM EQUITY THROUGH
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Matthew Gargano
Coordinator of the Right Place to Start Program/ Adjunct Business Faculty, Rock Valley College, IL
Amy Schulz
CTE & EWD Director, Feather River College, CA
Tess Posner
WELCOME
We appreciate the opportunity to stand before
you today to share our initiatives, and to help you
harness the power of entrepreneurship!
By a show of hands, how many of you are:
•
Faculty?
•
Administrators?
•
Support Staff?
OVERVIEW OF
DREAM EQUITY THROUGH
ENTREPRENEURSHIP (DETE’)
This philosophy promotes the idea,
programs, initiatives, and actions of
helping to create an even playing
field for served,
under-resourced, and under-represented
populations through providing the
equity of entrepreneurship.
AN OVERVIEW OF THE MOST AT-RISK
COMMUNITY SERVED BY
ROCK VALLEY COLLEGE
•
Rock Valley College, founded in 1964, currently enrolls approximately
8,600 students and serves: Winnebago County, most of Boone County
and portions of Ogle, Stephenson, McHenry and DeKalb counties. The
total population served is more than 340,000.
•
Rockford Illinois, part of Winnebago County, makes up approximately
45% of our service area, and faces the following challenges:
– Debuted in Forbes Magazine’s “America’s Most Miserable Cities for 2013” placing at Number 3, succeeded only by Flint, Michigan and Detroit,
Michigan (respectively).
– Poverty rate of 24.7% (census.gov)
– Unemployment rate of 16.1% (U6 measurement, illinoispolicy.org) – Rockford School District Drop-out rates: Auburn High School, 45%;
Jefferson High School, 53%; Rockford East High School, 45%; and Roosevelt High School, 46% (census.gov)
– Rockford’s violent crime index soars 260.4% higher than the national violent crime index (city-data.com)
RESPONDING TO THIS CALL
•
RVC is responding to this great call
by focusing on: increasing
employment, helping to pull citizens
out of poverty, and creating a more
productive people through DETE’.
•
DETE’ is a collaboration between
RVC’s Right Place to Start Program
and the Academic Business Division.
RIGHT PLACE TO START PROGRAM
LINKING ARMS WITH THE ACADEMIC
BUSINESS DIVISION
RPS:
• Part of Student Development’s Intercultural Student Services Department (ISS)
• Provides comprehensive personal and academic support to RVC students who either graduated from a Rockford Public School 205 high school or currently reside in the RPS 205 district through, but not limited to: life coaching, special events (such as First Fridays), workshops, college tours, earned incentives, and tuition
reimbursement for STU 100, 101, and 299.
• Statistics include:
– 75% of students participating in fall 2012 returned in spring 2013.
– 74% of students completed 66.6% or more of the CHs in which they enrolled in spring 2013.
– 75% of students have a cumulative college-level GPA of over 2.00 after spring 2013.
– 67% of students retained from fall 2012 to fall 2013.
Academic Business Division:
• RPS students interested in one of our business programs (AAS, AA, AS,
Entrepreneurship Certificate) enroll in BUS 130 AND BUS 131 (co-requisites).
• Access to partnership with Small Business Development Center (SBDC)
• Assistance with launching small business, which includes potential funding for vetted business plan.
OUR FIRST FRUIT OF DETE’:
DEXTERITY!
•
Dexter Johnson
•
Age 19
•
Majoring in art and
business
•
Raised by mother and
grandmother
•
Didn’t want to follow in his
father’s footsteps who is
currently in prison, so he
found his sanctuary in art
to help keep him off the
streets.
Ved Photo
SamaUSA provides low-income
Americans with digital skills and
access to internet-based jobs to help
To break the cycle of poverty, low-income college students need access to
living-wage jobs. Online work is one solution.
Freelancers on average
increase their hourly
wage by almost 60%
in their first year.
On Elance and oDesk, freelancers have
earned
$1.7 billion
to date.
Source: oDesk/ Elance, Intuit Report
But in order for the unemployed to take advantage of online work
opportunities, they need to be
li
fted in to the 21st century economy with
new skills.
SamaUSA trains low-income community college students to earn money for school through online job platforms.
By bringing digital literacy and Internet-based work opportunities to disadvantaged areas, our program aims to empower people in poverty across the nation.
Marketable Skills
Website Creation
Website Content Management Business and Personal Blogging Customer Service
Digital Work Readiness
Soft skills
Entrepreneurship Financial Literacy Proposal Writing
Access and Exposure
Representatives from online work platforms provide extra coaching
Students complete work projects on online platforms
-
Students are showing high
persistence rates after completing our
program
Students report increased
-
entrepreneurial abilities and
confidence
-
writing skills
-professionalism
SamaUSA’s 2013 goal was for students to earn back the post-pilot cost of the program through online work.
Graduates have surpassed our target income of $1,200/ student by $800.
After our successful first year, we began
rolling out the highly
elastic SamaUSA program across the nation
and we now operate
in five communities in three states.
CASE STUDY AT
FEATHER RIVER
COLLEGE
Rural Community
12%
Unemployment
SamaUSA Class:
2/3’s Baby Boomers
1/3 Traditional
students
Retirement
Uncertainty
HOW WE DID IT
SamaUSA Leading
Edge Curriculum
Weekly calls
SamaUSA listened
& iterated
accordingly
Empowered
Students
LESSONS
LEARNED
Success!
Deeper Digital
Divide
Trusted
Partnerships
Flexibility in Beta
Celebrate Success!
HOW TO START SAMAUSA
•
SamaUSA is prioritizing growth through a "train the trainer" model where we
provide selected partners with our curriculum, resources, and ongoing
coaching and support.
•
We are especially interested in finding ways to offer our program as a
for-credit class at innovative community colleges like Feather River.
•
If interested in learning more, fill out our partner
form:
http://bit.do/SamaPartner
SamaUSA Staff will follow-up within 2-3 weeks with more
information and next steps.