The partnership between the Jacobson Institute for Youth Entrepreneurship and the Iowa Department of Education provides Iowa educators with full access to BizInnovator Startup, a full semester curriculum recognized as one of the Top 4 entrepreneurship curriculums nationwide. BizInnovator Startup helps bridge connections between school and community, developing future leaders by engaging students in active community-minded problem-solving.

“BizInnovator Startup provides strategies and methods for educators to create a problem and project-based, hands-on, student-centered experiential learning environment,” said Jacobson Institute Director Dawn Bowlus. “Students are directly engaged in identifying problems in their community, receive mentorship from local business and industry, and develop entrepreneurial solutions that have the potential to impact the local economy.”

The timing is right for Iowa school communities to enhance their innovation and entrepreneurship programming. Entrepreneurship education offers an opportunity for students to engage in their community using creative problem-solving to tackle challenges, receiving mentorship, building strong connections that will help prepare them for future success in college and career, and giving them a lens to see there is a place for them to thrive in Iowa.

In addition to curriculum, BizInnovator Startup offers online professional development for educators nationwide. Educators who successfully complete the BizInnovator Startup professional development are able to offer students an opportunity to earn three transferable college credits from the University of Iowa.

Sign up for full access to the BizInnovator Startup entrepreneurship curriculum here