DURHAM – The NC IDEA Foundation will launch a program for what it calls “entrepreneurial mindset education” across North Carolina early next year.

The Ice House Entrepreneurship Program, which was developed in partnership with the Kauffman Foundation, is intended to help people “learn to think like an entrepreneur” and develop:

  • Creativity
  • Critical thinking
  • Problem solving
  • Teamwork

and other skills it says are essential to entrepreneurship.

What is Ice House?

In the late 1950s, Glen Allan, Mississippi was a poor cotton community where opportunities seemed limited and resources were scarce. For most, the work was in the fields where the sun was hot, the days were long, and the wages low. Yet, there was one man who saw opportunity where others did not—an unlikely entrepreneur named Cleve Mormon—the man who owned the Ice House.

In every community, there are “Ice House Entrepreneurs”— ordinary people who have no particular advantage over others, yet somehow they manage to succeed. What sets them apart? How are they able to recognize opportunities that others overlook? What is it that enables them to overcome obstacles and rise above their circumstances to reach for a better life? And more importantly, what can we all learn from them?

Inspired by the life story of Pulitzer nominee Clifton Taulbert and the influence of his Uncle Cleve, Who Owns the Ice House? Eight Life Lessons from an Unlikely Entrepreneur is the companion text to the Ice House Entrepreneurship Programs—experiential, problem-based learning programs designed to inspire and engage participants with the determination and perseverance of an entrepreneurial mindset. Ice House participants learn from a diverse array of real world, “unlikely” entrepreneurs who have embraced an entrepreneurial mindset.

From The Entrepreneurial Learning Initiative

The course will be led by instructors that complete a three-day certification and training program. “[T]he instructor to be a subject matter expert in entrepreneurship, but rather a facilitator of the materials (print, online and video) that provide the expertise,” NC IDEA noted.

“NC IDEA has an ambitious goal to educate 100,000 North Carolinians with an entrepreneurial mindset,” said Thom Ruhe, NC IDEA’s CEO. “We cannot do this alone, so we are seeking education partners who want to help us empower as many people as possible,”

The first facilitator training program is set for Dec. 12-14 at a location to be determined in the Triangle. People interested in becoming facilitators must apply. The deadline to apply is Dec. 1.

Learn more at www.ncidea.org/grants-programs/ice-house

Details about the curriculum are online at www.elimindset.com