Meet Our New Team Member!

Alex is responsible for managing the day-to-day technical and operational support of ELI’s Learning Management Systems, website, and decision-support systems. Prior to joining ELI, Alex earned her B.S. in Information Technology from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University where she was involved with numerous organizations, such as Epsilon Pi Tau and Alpha Kappa Mu Honor’s Society and Women in Science and Technology. She also participated in activities such as hackathons, innovation/project challenges, and research opportunities.

New Podcast Episode - How A Single Teenage Mom Became A Successful Entrepreneur With Sirena Moore-Thomas

In this episode, Gary is joined by serial entrepreneur and public speaker Sirena Moore-Thomas. In the conversation, Sirena and Gary unpack her early life and how her experiences shaped her trajectory. As a single teenage mother of twins, raised in public housing, with no college degree, Sirena is the epitome of an unlikely entrepreneur. Her accomplishments—not the least of which is co-founding a million-dollar cleaning business with a few hundred dollars in her spare time—have garnered national media attention, including the New York Times, Black Enterprise Magazine, and NBC.

USASBE 2022

USASBE is an inclusive community advancing entrepreneurship education through bold teaching, scholarship, and practice. USASBE 2022 will take place January 5-9 in a hybrid format that supports both on-premise and online attendance, thereby providing conference access to the entire USASBE community regardless of one’s ability to travel to an in-person event. In addition, ELI will be presenting a Summit on January 6th, Shifting Entrepreneurship from the Perimeter to the Core, with Johnetta Boseman Hardy from Bowie State University and Thom Ruhe with NC IDEA.

Experience The Joy Of Being Wrong

We all hate to be wrong. It’s an unpleasant experience that most of us would prefer to avoid. In fact, we often go to great lengths to defend our beliefs — even when they may be holding us back. As Mark Twain once said: “What gets us into trouble is not what we don’t know. It’s what we know for sure that just ain’t so.”

In his book, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know, the Organizational Psychologist Adam Grant describes the three most common modes we use to defend our beliefs: those of preachers, prosecutors, or politicians. According to Grant, when we’re in preacher mode, we’re convinced we’re right. When we’re in prosecutor mode, we’re trying to prove that others are wrong. And when we’re in politician mode, we’re trying to win the approval of others.

The Untapped Potential of Unlikely Entrepreneurs

What does the future hold for those who do not do well in school? Each year more than a million high school students drop out of high school. That’s nearly 7,000 per day. And in many cases, they do so not because they are incapable but because they are bored and disengaged. 

The days of high-paying, low-skilled jobs are a relic of the past. For those who drop out, the future is likely to be bleak, not only in terms of earning potential but also health and psychological well-being. And the broader impact on our communities is equally stark. In addition to the wasted human potential, dropouts’ social and economic costs include lower tax revenues, higher crime rates, and increased demand for social services. In other words, we all pay the price when students drop out of school.