coaching Archives - Digipreneurship University is a fast track collaborative learning platform.

Entrepreneurship programs can help ex-offenders stay out of prison

Oct 2, 2019 | coaching, financial literacy, partnerships

Indeed, given education and opportunities, ex-offenders often change their own antisocial behaviors. A rehabilitative approach more directly addresses the circumstances and attitudes that motivate individuals to commit crimes in the first place.

Most crimes are economically motivated. The employment barriers faced by ex-offenders only exacerbate the problems associated with returning to society.

Another arrest compounds the problems faced by ex-offenders, creating a rip-current against re-integration that intensifies over time.

Some rehabilitative programs show promise in breaking away from this pattern. Entrepreneurship, for example, helps marginalized individualized rebuild their lives by creating wealth and channeling a healthy disregard for rules into a personal and community asset.

Efforts like the Prison Entrepreneurship Program and Defy Ventures help offenders hone their existing skills through rigorous business classes and one-on-one mentoring, the culmination of which is a complete business plan.

These programs boast recidivism rates of less than 10 percent among graduates. This statistic alone represents both a social and fiscal feat, as each ex-offender who stays out of the criminal justice system reduces crime and frees up approximately $20,000 of Florida taxpayer funding annually.

These programs provide powerful testimony to the effectiveness of well-designed rehabilitative programs for soon-to-be released offenders.

New Education Platforms Power Online Digital Literacy Curriculum

Mar 25, 2014 | coaching, partnerships, STEM E-learning

The first stage of Digipreneurhip is Interoperability, the ability of making systems and organizations to work together (inter-operate) or to which systems and devices can exchange data, and interpret that shared data. We understand the challenges faced by most low income families who do not have access to adequate computers, tablets and smart phones. For students and families who complete the Digipreneur training we strive to help provide access to refurbished or new computers and software loaded with educational resources, along with assistance in signing up for affordable broadband and access to 24/7 bilingual IT helpdesk support. These resources extend student learning after school, improve communication between parents and schools, and more fully engage parents in the learning process.

Teacher training is another important component of Digital Citizenship, the basis for our culture proficiency technology program. Career and technical educators benefit from students and parents exposed to Digital Citizenship and Basic Computer skills, especially when they incorporate relevant content into lesson plans to empower everyday choices. Both CommonSense.org and PowerMyLearning.com are platform we use to help enrich the curriculum for students of all ages. E-learning environments are vital to equip teachers with valuable tools to customize instructional materials for kids at different learning levels. With online learning activities tagged by subject, grade, academic standards and other categories, tech educators in more than 30,000 school communities nationwide are empowered more than ever.

How Best To Encourage Black ‘Teenpreneurs’

Jan 24, 2014 | coaching

The difference is that STEM education is the entry point. Science, technology, engineering and math is the entry point for entrepreneurs that want to participate and actually compete in a tech-driven economy. And without that type of background and without having the access points to the networks that you largely see at Harvard and MIT and Stanford and many of the other research institutions and institutions of innovation, we’re not in those circles.

We don’t have the academic background. We don’t have an understanding. We don’t have generational knowledge of the type of entrepreneurship that exists today. We don’t have the generational wealth that is passed down that provides the boot-strapping needs of entrepreneurs. We’re missing a number of the basic resources that empower entrepreneurs to compete in today’s society.

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3 Reasons Why You Should Go to Hackathons

Jan 19, 2014 | coaching, innovation

Here are a three main reasons why women should attend hackathons:

It’s the Best Way to Learn

Hackathons have provided a really powerful vehicle for getting new people into the tech world. They provide the perfect opportunity to dive in and learn a ton. It doesn’t matter how basic or advanced your skills are, hackathon will be a great place to learn something new.

Become Part of the Community

There’s no better place to get more involved with the tech community than at hackathons. You will make friends, have fun and possibly even find co-founders for your startup. So whether you are an experienced hacker, CS major or just taking a peek at the tech world, you should start with attending your first hackathon.

Create a Ripple Effect

We have gotten really good at convincing young males to attend hackathons. Leaders in the male-dominated hackathon community have convinced their male friends to join. After someone goes to their first good hackathon, that person immediately begins asking when the next hackathon is, and the next thing you know, they have become evangelists themselves, inviting their friends.

We can achieve this same outcome with women. Already, leaders like Tess Rinearson, Katie Siegel, Amy Chen, and Taylor Barnett are taking up the mantle in their own communities.

If you’re a female or male leader in the tech community, reach out to your female friends and invite them to the next hackathon you’re going to.

If you’re reading this post and interested in tech, sign up for the next hackathon near you and make sure to bring at least one other female friend with you. Having her there would make it less intimidating if you’re going for the first time and would make a double impact.

Here are a few places to start looking for hackathons and getting involved with the community:

Meetup groups
Student-focused hackathons. They have special tickets at the Michigan Hackathon for women and are organizing a free bus from any city in the US that has the most women sign up: bit.ly/hackathonseason2
Railsbridge – a non-profit focused on helping women learn to code
Hacker League has a list of upcoming hackathons worldwide

America’s Entrepreneurs of Tomorrow

Jan 15, 2014 | coaching, innovation

written by Mike Green, @Futurists in Tech

They are competitive, creative, innovative, resilient and courageous. If those sound like core characteristics of successful entrepreneurs, they are, and we need to build on them.

It’s no secret that America’s black boys are considered the most difficult to educate, recalcitrant, truant, lost, confused, angry and dangerous demographic in the public-education system. The “school-to-prison pipeline” is an apt description for the millions of black male teenagers who must navigate the tumultuous channels of failed high poverty schools and communities without a committed, knowledgeable adult male to guide them through the daily dilemmas and risk assessments that far too often force them to choose between life and death. This horrific paradigm persists primarily because educators, policymakers, investors and CEOs have also failed at math and risk assessment.

One of the solutions to America’s current crisis of flailing economics in its metro regions and flagging global economic competitiveness lies in the potential of one of the nation’s most promising assets: black boys. America has seen consistent resiliency and success from black males in each generation, despite centuries of degradation and deliberate institutional hostility. In today’s knowledge-based, tech-driven, globally competitive innovation economy, the key to discovering a solution to America’s economic woes requires a different lens through which leaders view investing in black boys. That lens is math.

The nation’s highest growth in entrepreneurship from 2002 to 2007 was among black Americans: 60 percent, more than three times the national average during the same period, resulting in the creation of 1.9 million black-owned businesses.

Saving America’s black boys, by investing in their innovative competitive intelligence through policies of inclusive competitiveness, would yield a future bumper crop of American innovators prepared to compete in a globally competitive, tech-based workforce and to become high-growth, job-creating entrepreneurs. Investing in saving America’s most disconnected demographic is an investment in saving America.

Entrepreneurship programs can help ex-offenders stay out of prison

New Education Platforms Power Online Digital Literacy Curriculum

How Best To Encourage Black ‘Teenpreneurs’

3 Reasons Why You Should Go to Hackathons

America’s Entrepreneurs of Tomorrow

Global Technology Education Elevates Voices of Young Farmers

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