See the Entrepreneurial Spirit in Action!

7th-grade students from across the Erie School District in Northwest Pennsylvania are showing off their newly developed entrepreneurial mindset at the 6th Annual Ice House Culminating Event. The event gives students in the Ice House Entrepreneurship Program a chance to showcase what they learned and pitch their ideas for projects to address some real-life challenges.

“I learned in order to be an entrepreneur, it takes dedication and hard work but also a great mindset. You don’t fail backwards, you have to fail forward,” said Charles Raiford Jr., a middle school student.

“There’s just so many problems out there that are not solved right now that could be solved. There’s so many opportunities for people,” said Trenton Van Cleve, another middle school student.

Raiford Jr.’s project was an accessory to prevent students, teachers and parents from losing pencils, and Van Cleve’s was about a seatbelt that would prevent a car from moving until it was buckled.


NEW PODCAST EPISODE

Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is With Dr. Meena McCullough

In this episode, we talk to Dr. Meena McCullough, physical therapist turned entrepreneur. Dr. McCullough’s journey to starting Body Spring is a master class in entrepreneurship: identify a problem to solve, try things on a small scale, and continuously learn and adapt. Rather than taking big risks or quitting her day job, she began by experimenting after work and on weekends, building prototypes and refining her ideas through customer feedback. She also discusses the difficulty of overcoming self-doubt and dealing with negativity, as well as the value of persistence, passion, and embracing uncertainty.

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Professional Development

Online Entrepreneurial Mindset Facilitator Training - July 2025

This four-week online Entrepreneurial Mindset Facilitator Certification Training equips educators, SBDC advisors, economic developers, and other entrepreneurial support organization personnel with the tools to cultivate entrepreneurial thinking in their classrooms and communities. By exploring the mindset and methods of everyday entrepreneurs, participants gain a deep understanding of the attitudes and behaviors that drive self-directed learning, opportunity recognition, and value creation. Through a blend of live Zoom sessions, self-paced content, and experiential learning, the training emphasizes critical skills such as creativity, problem-solving, empathy, and collaboration. Certified facilitators emerge prepared to lead Ice House Entrepreneurship Programs and empower others to think and act more entrepreneurially.

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Ice House Entrepreneurship Programs: An Entrepreneurial Mindset In Classrooms & Organizations

Explore the entrepreneurial mindset: understand its core principles, why it is important, and techniques to nurture it in yourself and others. By combining insights gleaned from the observation of everyday entrepreneurs with motivational research, the ELI team will share how implementing the Ice House Entrepreneurship Programs helps to create an effective entrepreneurial learning environment and develop more resilient, solution-focused individuals.

Wednesday, April 9 | 1:00 - 2:00 PM ET

Unlocking Entrepreneurial Potential in Overlooked Communities

We all know that entrepreneurial activity is essential for creating vibrant and sustainable communities. While economic developers have begun to recognize the value of building entrepreneurial ecosystems, many are designed to focus exclusively on high-growth, venture-backed startups and do not address the needs of everyday entrepreneurs. By doing so, they may be overlooking an opportunity hiding in plain sight. Join ELI Founder Gary Schoeniger and NC IDEA President & CEO Thom Ruhe for a thought-provoking discussion on a new economic development model that prioritizes entrepreneurial mindset education and grassroots support systems to empower everyday entrepreneurs.

Wednesday, April 30 1:00 - 2:30 PM ET


EXPANDING MINDSET

NetWork Kansas Builds Entrepreneurial Thinking Through E-Communities

All across Kansas, residents are taking a deep dive into entrepreneur-led development thanks to NetWork Kansas and its E-Commerce Programs.

Over the past 18 years, 75 e-communities have been established in the state’s 105 counties, providing $21.5 million to businesses and leveraging an additional $99.2 million (via bank loans, owner down payments, resource partner loans, and more). In addition to financial assistance, e-communities have played a significant role in changing how people think about entrepreneurship.

“A lot of people don’t understand what entrepreneurship is—they don’t know the deeper meaning of what goes into it and have never heard that there is a mindset to it,” explained Amara Kniep, the Manager of E-Community Programs at NetWork Kansas. “To someone who’s just starting out, having the mindset to be successful will be a factor in whether they’re still in business 10 to 15 years down the road.”

Learn More

The Entrepreneurial Mindset Advantage Is Available Everywhere Books Are Sold

Combining the stories of everyday entrepreneurs with research in behavioral science, this new book shares a practical five-step how-to guide and shows readers how to use an entrepreneurial mindset to better identify opportunities, mobilize resources, and make things happen in their lives while also encouraging others to do the same.

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