| Schwartz
accepted into program
Matthew Schwartz, a junior at Berea College, has been accepted as one of the 20 members of Cohort 14 Entrepreneurship for the Public Good (EPG) program at Berea College located in Kentucky. EPG is a multi-year program that teaches students entrepreneurial leadership in the surrounding Appalachia. This summer, the EPG Cohort members will be instructed in the classroom in addition to also engaging with social entrepreneurs in the surrounding area to grow their business ventures. Throughout the Summer Institute, Dr. Peter Hackbert, Berea’s primary entrepreneurship professor, will lead the program teaching students the value of teamwork, innovation, leadership, business planning and of course, entrepreneurship. Students will learn these skills in the field by active learning and by reading and discussing various texts in the classroom. During the second summer, students will further their learning through a Direct Field Experience. The students will participate in an internship looking to integrate the six learning goals of EPG. They will be documenting and journaling their experiences and compiling it in a presentation to present it to Berea College students, faculty and staff. Entrepreneurship for the Public Good was established at Berea College in 2003. The program was created to implement entrepreneurial leadership in rural communities in Appalachia. EPG defines entrepreneurial leadership as “A process when one person or a group of people in a community originate an idea or innovation for a needed change and influence others in that community to commit to realizing that change, despite the presence of risk, ambiguity, or uncertainty”. The program is centered on this statement and the six learning goals of the program: “engaging complexity and uncertainty; exploring values and ethical structures; facilitating group decisions; recognizing opportunity; mobilizing resources; and, advocating change.” These principles closely align with Berea College's’ Great Commitments, primarily “To serve the Appalachian region primarily through education but also by other appropriate services.” The program hopes to teach students how to identify problems in the community and collaborate with teammates to create a sustaining solution to those problems. For more information on the Entrepreneurship for the Public Good Program visit https://www.epgberea.com/en/ For more information on Berea Colleges’ mission and its Great Commitments visit https://www.berea.edu/about/mission/ |
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