Penn State Berks students in the Entrepreneurship and Innovation (ENTI) Minor will hold two workshops for middle school Reading School District students in the Penn State Educational Partnership Program (PEPP) on October 29, 2014. The PEPP students will learn about entrepreneurship, self-assessment, and starting a business plan.
The workshops will first focus on what it means to be an entrepreneur and then give an opportunity to practice innovative thinking. Throughout the self-assessment portion of the workshop, the students will learn about themselves, their passions, networking, and generating new ideas. Finally, they will be taught the basics of writing a business plan and how to incorporate their business plan within the needs of their community. These workshops are supported by National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance (NCIIA). Dr. Abdullah Konak, Professor of Information Sciences and Technology, and Dr. Sadan Kulturel-Konak, Professor of Management Information Systems and Coordinator of the Entrepreneurship Minor, are faculty advisers and workshop co-coordinators.
The Penn State Educational Partnership Program (PEPP) is an early-intervention collaboration between Penn State Berks and the Reading School District. The Mission of the program is to enhance academic preparedness and motivation levels in its Reading School District (RSD) participants to pursue higher education.
PEPP also recruits and trains students from Penn State Berks, most of whom are Childhood and Early Education majors, to act as PEPP Learning Assistants (PLAs). In this role, Penn State Berks students serve as tutors and mentors, and are positive role models who lead and inspire the PEPP students. The PLAs must present a lesson plan in addition to tutoring, mentoring, helping with homework, planning, and coordinating PEPP student ideas and projects, and learning about classroom management in a diverse urban school environment.
For more information, contact Guadalupe Kasper, PEPP Program Coordinator, at 610-396-6272 or via e-mail at [email protected].