Enterpreneurship Experience

(Gold)

My entrepreneurship experience was satisfied with my work with UMBC's Eco-Ambassors program from August 2015-May 2016. In this program, I was tasked with picking a environment-related problem and work over time to fix it. I came up with techniques to save energy on campus (R). I organized meetings with some directors at RES-LIFE to discuss putting up signs on energy saving (T). I also started photo campaigns of students taking pictures of themselves with light switches to remind people to turn lights off after leaving the room. Now, a lot of the switches on campus have signs on them reminding people to turn the lights off when leaving the room.

Making solar energy more economical is one of my grand challenges. This challenge falls under the category of energy saving and renewable energy. In completing my entrepreneurship experience, I was tasked both with increasing awareness and getting people to sign documents indicating that they had become aware of the solar panels on campus. Additionally, I was tasked with holding information sessions and establishing a culture of saving energy through means such as turning off light bulbs when leaving a room. In doing this, I got to learn about the public's perception of solar energy and their openness to the technology (Pe). This is important because for my grand challenge of making solar energy more economical-the definition of 'economical' depends on the public's view of the associated costs (F).

Completing my entrepreneurship experience required persistence (P). To build a culture that was previously non-existent, it is important to apply different media to remind people of the values you want them to adopt, and to practice those values yourself (I). This meant that I had to repeatedly explain to people why sustainability is important and why saving energy is key.

How this program satisfied program objectives:

Develop strategies for recognizing opportunities and identifying the tools for quality risk assessment. In completing my project, I collaborated with the student government association to determine upcoming events, the nature of the crowd at such events, and the best, most subtle ways to introduce sustainability to the crowd.
Exhibit skills for communicating ideas in a concise and logical way. In convincing people to provide signatures, I had to explain the whole sustainability movement in about 1-2 minutes. This required me to be concise and direct, while being effective.
Work effectively in teams focused on entrepreneurship-related projects. I had to have weekly meetings explaining the strategies I had taken for the previous week and have my team tell me what seemed to work and what didn’t. This way, I went into the new week with adjusted, refined strategies.
Apply entrepreneurial thinking to social issues and social problems. Entrepreneurial thinking requires opening people’s eyes to why they need to adopt your ‘product’. In this way, my eco-project required me to convince people that sustainability is beneficial to them.
Understand successful organizations and effective leadership strategies. In meeting with RES-LIFE and making managerial decisions, I got to learn about personnel management, communication and other leadership strategies.

The barrier to the completion of my experience is that I could not go into people’s private/ intimate space to encourage them to save energy. My reach was limited to only public spaces.

NB: The letters in parentheses represent the core learning objectives:

Pe-Perspectivism, P-Persistence, T-Teamwork, F-Flexibility, R-Realistic vision, I-Integrity