Erie middle school students shared their entrepreneurial ideas for helping the world, including apps to help people stay healthy and restrooms stay clean and a water bottle that comes with storage for students’ supplies.<\/p>\n
Students from Erie’s East, Strong Vincent and Woodrow Wilson middle schools and the Eagle\u2019s Nest Program of Academic Distinction<\/a> took part March 24 in the annual Ice House culminating event held in Gannon University’s Waldron Campus Center. It included student presentations showcasing projects that use an entrepreneurial mindset to address real-life challenges and issues including recycling, water pollution and homelessness, officials said.<\/p>\n More than 130 students attended and while only five groups spoke to the audience, others had their work on display.<\/p>\n “We are so excited for them to see themselves as creators of their future,” Megan Hollern, supervisor of curriculum for the Erie School District, said.<\/p>\n Throughout the spring semester, the district’s seventh-grade students participated in interactive classroom lessons based on a curriculum developed by the Entrepreneurial Learning Initiative<\/a>. The curriculum is intended to teach students ways to develop an entrepreneurial mindset and expand their individual potential, officials said.<\/p>\n What is the Ice House?<\/p>\n Based in Mentor, Ohio, the Entrepreneurial Learning Initiative is a provider of entrepreneurial mindset training, professional development, courseware and consulting services, according to its website. Its founder and CEO, Gary Schoeniger, co-wrote “Who Owns the Ice House? Eight Life Lessons from an Unlikely Entrepreneur<\/a>.”<\/p>\n More in education: Cursive handwriting is returning to Pa. schools. See local response to new law<\/a><\/p>\n Ice House was originally launched in Erie<\/a> in October 2017 as a pilot program for seventh-graders at the city’s public middle schools in partnership with United Way of Erie County, the Innovation Collaborative and Northwest Tri-County Intermediate Unit 5. Since then, several thousand Erie students have participated<\/a>.<\/p>\n Dave Cross, a social studies teacher at Strong Vincent, said students read the “Ice House” book, learn lessons about entrepreneurship and complete a project in which they identify a problem and come up with a solution that affects society in a positive way.<\/p>\n “They learn that you don’t have to be an entrepreneur to be successful but if they want to be an entrepreneur they could,” he said. “But the idea is that no matter what they do in life, if they have an entrepreneurial mindset, they can be a success.”<\/p>\n Dana Massing can be reached at dmassing@gannett.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n