Education and Outreach: High School Entrepreneurship Efforts with the Conduit Initiative Staff

One of the main goals of the Startup Conduit Initiative for Southern Oklahoma is to support entrepreneurs, specifically technology entrepreneurs. However, with the goal of inspiring future entrepreneurs, our team wanted to focus on reaching out to high school students in our area. These students are digital natives, raised with technology enmeshed in every aspect of their lives. If we can give them information about entrepreneurship and encourage them to think entrepreneurially, they will create new technological innovations and startups in the future. As the Conduit Team started brainstorming on how best to reach these students, we decided the best course of action would be to develop a two-session workshop that we could pilot with high school students through the Upward Bound 2 program, hosted at East Central University.

Conduit Quarterly Investor Meetup

What happened?

The Startup Conduit Initiative hosted a meetup event for investors in Ada on Thursday, June 20^th. Two startups were featured to a group of eleven community investors, mentors, and industry professionals. Weku Solar, an Oklahoma-based startup, pitched their business focused on solar electricity as a service. Chad Robertson provided a pitch for MyClone Technologies, an Ada-based startup focused on 3d scanning individuals for 3d printing and digital avatars.

Access to Capital is a critical part of supporting new startups in a region. This program is part of our EDA Build to Scale (award ED21HDQ0240067) funded effort to create more startups in the region of Southern Oklahoma. We wanted to create a space where potential investors could learn about new companies working in our region and the unique investment needs for technology focused startups. We hope to create a network of investors in a region who are knowledgeable about scalable technology startups so that our companies can find the capital they need, without feeling the need to relocate to a different part of the country to seek out investment needed to scale.

Forming a New Team: East Central University launching a new E-Sports team in a newly renovated lab on campus in Ada. Several Ada Jobs Foundation staff members met with the coach, Cody Soden, who provided a tour of the space. The lab is outfitted with modern gaming pc’s, peripherals, a livestreaming broadcast booth, and the ability to send a live broadcast to a large auditorium on the first floor of the University Center building.

Why it matters: E-Sports is a growing competitive activity for high school and college students. It attracts many technical students to the university, particularly computer science students. The Ada Jobs Foundation is focused on identifying the technology communities in Ada and our region, and E-Sports could be a gateway for many high school students who wish to gain a career in IT and Technology fields. This facility at East Central University is a modern and attractive amenity for the university and it another way for Ada to show distinction and excellence.

Ada Jobs Foundation

580-235-0070

www.growada.com

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