GARY – The National Association of Community College Entrepreneurship, the nation’s leading organization focused on promoting entrepreneurship through community colleges, has announced that Ivy Tech Gary Campus President Marlon Mitchell will sign the group’s Presidents for Entrepreneurship Pledge.
Through the pledge, presidents of community colleges throughout the country promise to take five actions to increase their focus on entrepreneurship and the impact these colleges have on the economic well-being of the communities they serve.
Mitchell will sign the pledge Jan. 18 during the board meeting of The Society of Innovators, a project of the Gerald I. Lamkin Innovation and Entrepreneurship C enter at Ivy Tech. The meeting will take place at noon in the multipurpose room at the campus, 1440 E. 35th Ave.
According to NACCE President and CEO Rebecca Corbin, the pledge is a way for community colleges to advance entrepreneurship and create jobs across the country. Community college presidents who take the pledge commit to these five steps:
– Developing transparency of community college and community assets;
– Creating internal and external teams dedicated to entrepreneurship;
– Increasing entrepreneurs’ engagement in community colleges;
– Engaging in industry cluster development;
– Creating broad exposure to their college’s commitment to entrepreneurship.
“The five action steps were developed based on NACCE’s observations of what was working best on member campuses,” Corbin said. “After observing the entrepreneurship-related activities of our members over a period of years, we started to see commonalities among the more successful institutions. One of the major things that clearly makes a difference is the commitment by leadership to entrepreneurship.”
With the economy still lagging in many regions of the United States, more than 200 community colleges throughout the country have signed the entrepreneurship pledge, and by doing so, have committed to playing a greater role in stimulating economic development.
If remaining competitive is a strong motivator for both businesses and community colleges, opportunity is another. According to Mitchell, the timing for collaborating with new partners has never been better.
“There’s no time to spare,” he said. “We’re having better conversations with community partners and those conversations have a significantly different tenor than just three years ago. Among the four key partners we work with who represent area industry, we’ve had strategic conversations with each of them to prepare for the future. Companies are providing training dollars in northern Indiana in the areas of energy, light manufacturing and transportation. All of these represent opportunities for jobs, career enhancement and entrepreneurship for local residents.”
The Presidents for Entrepreneurship Pledge is in response to the Obama administration’s Startup America call to action to stimulate economic growth state by state by encouraging entrepreneurs to start their own businesses. NACCE is a founding affiliate of the Startup America Partnership, an alliance of the country’s most innovative entrepreneurs, corporations, universities, foundations and other leaders.
