Getting Great Ideas off the Ground with the Changemakers at the JumpStart Higher Ed Collaboration Council
Recipients of this year’s Changemaker Grant Award
Ten years ago the Black Eyed Peas were on top of the charts with "Boom Boom Pow," the recession was in full meltdown, Circuit City Stores were being shuttered across the land, and Abraham Lincoln had just turned 200 years old in a flurry of commemorative pennies.
Oh, and a pair of bumbling parents pretended that their six-year-old son had stowed away and been carried aloft by a helium balloon shaped like a flying saucer, which came to be known as the Balloon Boy Hoax.
But amidst all the economic downturn and helium humbug, something authentic and wonderful happened — in Cleveland, of all places. Yes, Cleveland does rock when it comes to a number of things, especially nurturing entrepreneurship.
I recently had the honor of giving the keynote as a higher education speaker at the 10-year celebration of the JumpStart Higher Ed Collaboration Council.
What's that, you ask? Well, let me explain it like this. Imagine that you're in the business of teaching entrepreneurship to college students — how to start businesses and help them grow successfully.
And instead of making them listen to dry lectures and read textbooks, you want to help them learn in a hands-on, experiential way. So you come up with innovative ways for students to learn by doing. After all, as somebody once said (who may or may not have been Einstein, depending on who you believe on the Internet): "The only source of knowledge is experience." A couple of examples:
Action shot from my keynote
Let's say that the students in your class come up with a great idea for an app. You want to help them find the funding to build it, test it, and bring it to market.
Or let's say there's a need in the community that a little bit of business-based initiative could solve. Maybe a local nursing home or community center that needs help funding art and activities, or new facilities, and your students are willing to take the lead on applying for funding and seeing the project through.
… You get what I'm talking about. Energizing, inventive ideas that might come from either students or their teacher — and wouldn't it be terrific if they had a special organization they could apply to for the funding and assistance they need to move forward?
So a decade ago, an outfit called JumpStart teamed up with the Burton D. Morgan Foundation to turn these dreams into realities. JumpStart has a long history of promoting entrepreneurship and business development in Northeast Ohio, by providing grants and funding to nurture innovation and help early-stage businesses not just get off the ground but soar to the heights. Meanwhile, the Burton D. Morgan Foundation has half a century of experience not just providing funding to teach entrepreneurship, but building what they call "ecosystems" to support it.
So it was a natural move for these two titans to create an initiative that would focus on the world of higher education. As they say in their own words, "The objective of the Council is to create a communication network that connects the higher education institutions to their communities, JumpStart and the Northeast Ohio entrepreneurial community." A big part of the goal is to use entrepreneurship to transform and revitalize local communities.
And so a decade ago they launched this trial balloon — a vehicle more powered by hope than helium.
Deborah Hoover
In my keynote at the 10-year celebration I told the story of Balloon Boy, and mentioned that even though it was a hoax, it did take a lot of effort and teamwork to pull off.
But in direct contrast with the Balloon Boy parents, the folks at the JumpStart Higher Ed Collaboration Council managed to put their teamwork behind something that was authentic and successful and made the world a better place.
Boom Boom Pow indeed. You might even say they got that rock 'n' roll, that future flow.
At the 10-year celebration, they also announced and honored the recipients of the Changemaker Grant Award. This award went to five higher ed institutions that helped create "new pathways for students." They did things like lining up mentorship for Film and Media Arts students to help them produce, market, sell and launch a film. Or partnering with the Ohio Aerospace Institute to help female college students build the professional skills to move into careers in STEM fields.
I was honored and inspired to meet and speak with so many wonderful folks at this event — including Deborah Hoover, President and CEO of the Burton D. Morgan Foundation, as well as JumpStart's President, Cathy Belk. Two strong business leaders who help keep all of this good work moving forward.
My hat is off to these folks. Here's to legitimate, visionary changemakers who aren't just full of hot air. We need more of them in the world, to help get great ideas off the ground.
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In addition to appearing as an interactive and funny speaker for educators, Tim Clue is available as a business keynote speaker for corporate events of all kinds as well as a keynote speaker for healthcare events.