Kilian Community College
Issue 51
Page 4
Entrepreneur Ventures Update The Kilian Community College Student Success Entrepreneurship program has morphed into Empowerment Ventures! Here, faculty mentor Stacy Walters explains the program and who’s involved. When we originally conceived the idea, we used a common incubator/business education model of monthly workshops over various business topics that entrepreneurs would then apply to their own businesses. I quickly discovered that the demographic of future entrepreneurs that I wanted in the program require a different type of program style. We continue to meet monthly about various business start-up topics, but we have added an intense mentoring component where I work closely with the entrepreneur to complete the actual concrete steps of setting up a business. While the entrepreneurs all had a vague dream of what their businesses would be, this program has helped them to narrow their ideas and to concretely start the process. Also, the future incubator space during the 2014-2015 academic year will determine for most of the entrepreneurs whether they can begin immediately or whether they will have to scale back their plans. The current cohort includes the following entrepreneurs: Janice Doyle with Ctrl, Alt, Del, a computer consulting business; Amanda Ludens with Infinity Construction, LLC: Green roofing technologies; Deb McIntyre with Wholistic Horse Center, a center that specializes in new equestrian training techniques that focus on a holistic method of training the horse; Leonard Young, founder of StaYoung StaYoung, a non-profit focused on working with at-risk kids; and Emelie Haigh, with Laughing Waters Sustainability & Prairie Gardens. Look for profiles of each entrepreneur/business in upcoming issues of KCC News.
Applications and information for the 2014-2015 program will be available March 3rd. People who are interested can contact me at swalters@kilian.edu or 605.221.3213. The first class will be September 20th from 1pm to 5pm.
Overage dates Returning students using Financial Aid can pick up overage checks on March 27th. New students will receive theirs on April 3rd. A Kilian ID is required to pick up your check.