22 Jul 21st Century Edupreneurs and Eduvators
Today I met Dr Buzz Palmer, the first ever Professor of Entrepreneurship, from Monash University, one of Australia’s largest universities.
He was inspirational!
Buzz, in his mid-thirties, has already founded 14 start-ups and is the CEO of STC Australia, an organization that promotes commercialization and entrepreneurship around next-generation technologies that grow new businesses focusing on advanced manufacturing in medical technologies.
Meeting people like Buzz is extraordinary. He’s disrupting thinking at universities and offering students opportunities to try out their crazy ideas and create their own start-ups to improve health and medical procedures. I love it!
Several years ago I was fortunate enough to meet Professor Yong Zhao from the University of Oregon. He really inspired me to start thinking about how we can change schools to meet the needs of 21st Century Learners.
Yong Zhao introduced me to thinking with an entrepreneurial mindset for schools. You see as educators in schools many of us are ‘silo thinkers’. You know what I mean. We went to school, then we went to university to train as teachers and administrators and then we went back to schools to educate the next generations. Usually with great passion and commitment. But sadly not with a broad mindset and the ability to look outside the schoolhouse, let alone at international school leadership and large scale educational revolution.
When I read more of Zhao’s work and learnt about entrepreneurial spirit, it really sparked my interest. My mother and father had been successful business owners and my Gen Y daughter has just launched her second successful business. I decided it was time for me to break out of my ‘silo thinking’ and discover more about entrepreneurship and become an Edupreneur and an Eduvator!
So, I took a huge leap of faith and resigned from my fabulous job as a Head of School leading an amazing Kindergarten – Grade 12 International Baccalaureate School and created my own start-up. I not only wanted to use my international education masters degree in new and exciting ways. I wanted to disrupt my thinking and think like an entrepreneur!
I’m learning first-hand in an experiential real-life situation what it means to create a start-up, take risks, think innovatively and be a part of a global network that enhances my learning and value to the world. It’s been fantastic and scary and I’m way out of the ‘silo thinking’ mentality.
Now I’m not suggesting that you resign from your job but I do think it’s time to disrupt your thinking and start thinking like an Eduvator and an Edupreneur to bring about change at your school, whether you work at a local level or into international education.
Offering students the opportunities and challenges to innovate, incubate, accelerate and actuate their own projects will promote their entrepreneurial and leadership growth. It will allow them to develop the skills they will need to thrive in their future not in our past.
If you’d like to learn more about how to become a 21st Century Edupreneur and an Eduvator why not join me on 12 & 13 November at NIST International School Bangkok. Click here for more details.
CTA
