I have repeatedly observed remarkable core transformations in girls of all ages who take part in the entrepreneurial exercises of VentureLab. We are demonstrating that entrepreneurial education holds a key to sparking girls’ interest in engineering, computer science, and technology by… Making these subjects real and relevant as girls learn to “think like entrepreneurs” about…
Who amongst us has ever accomplished something startlingly new without believing that it would be possible? Entrepreneurial education is all about possibilities. Being able to see how possibilities become realities for children and hot they embrace the continuing wonder of discovery is what’s so exciting about teaching entrepreneurship! Children are driven by curiosity and an urge…
What changes when students develop entrepreneurial skills at a young age? They learn that they can grow their brains, that their brains form new synapses and abilities as they learn new things. Students develop a mindset that makes learning a mental strengthening and an expansion of their potential. They employ the “curiosity cycle,” building foundations…
Real world examples, hands-on experiences, and entrepreneurial thinking can ignite girls’ interest in math precisely because they are real, relevant, and maybe even positive for girls’ lives, their world, and our planet.
… We can’t accept the simplistic premise that all differences are the result of how girls and boys are “socialized.”
One of the key differences between boys and girls has everything to do with entrepreneurial learning. Girls tend to understand math better when math problems are cast in real-world contexts. Leonard Sax, a psychologist and family physician, and the author of the books Boys Adrift, Girls on the Edge, and Why Gender Matters, describes a robust phenomenon…
An entrepreneurial mindset is an accelerated growth mindset. In acquiring such a mindset, not only do girls learn that they can make themselves smarter, they learn that they have the potential to think of new ideas that have practical applications. That might be fancy language for a 5-year-old so it would be better expressed for…
A growth mindset is a winning mindset. There is no downside to a girl believing that she has the capacity to grow her intelligence and to acquire new skills. And it’s important to know that neuroscience is on her side. Everything we are learning about plasticity of the brain supports the hope that people can…
When we encourage girls to change their mindset, rather than simply to get good grades, we open up a world of possibilities for them. In my last post, we looked at the importance of encouraging girls in math by understanding the differences in their brains and those of boys. I began to describe a study…
Full STEAM ahead: What happens to the girls who could go on to study and work in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math (STEAM), but who actually don’t? They miss incredible opportunities that could change their lives. This is often less a matter of choice, but more about conditioning. As early as…
Many parents are finding that traditional public school options are inadequate for their children’s education. Some opt to take their child’s schooling into their own hands, and offer a home school program instead. While this may require more work for both the parent and child, it also allows for an unparalleled amount of personalization and…
Our mindset and the way in which we think affects how we think. The celebrated psychologist Carol Dweck has written about mindset in her research surrounding motivation, personality and development. Her writings are included in her book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. Before Dweck’s research, which shows how important it is to emphasize mindset, such…
Our potential needs to be unleashed. And in children, that comes from encouragement as well as challenges. Girls need to be pushed and told that they can grow in order to see their potentail and this needs to be done when they’re young. By the time a girl is 7 years old, her brain has…
Many girls who are straight-A students are often discouraged from subjects where they achieve less than an A. As a result, these gifted girls assume that the course content is not for them, so they choose not to push themselves to pursue these subjects further. Typically these girls are praised and rewarded for their near-perfect…
The more you challenge your brain, the better off you are. Our brains want to be challenged, and we need to instill this sense of urging ourselves forward, this need to experience something new, in our daughters. Our brains are filled with neural pathways, which are connections made of bundles of neurons that receive and…
Redefining failure and encouraging a growth mindset is crucial in shaping our daughters’ path to success. By teaching girls that their brains can change, grow, and embrace challenges, we cultivate their confidence, persistence, and resilience. VentureLab aims to empower girls through entrepreneurial education, sparking their potential and equipping them to live impactful lives.
Our motivation to teach girls an entrepreneurial mindset and can-do skills is not only about gender equity, but our nation’s future. Our global leadership depends to a great extent on the ability of our entrepreneurs to create companies and jobs out of innovations in technology. That is the genius of our economy, but also its vulnerability. We cannot become complacent. We need new, young, courageous, growth-minded entrepreneurs—men and women—to start and build the businesses of the future.
We’re on a mission to create the next generation of diverse innovators and changemakers by making entrepreneurship education accessible to ALL youth.
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