Published in the Independence Daily Reporter May 2018

Busy Summer Coming for Fab Lab ICC

This summer, Fab Lab ICC will host day camps involving between 200 and 300 area youth, grades 4 to 12. Activities will be centered on designing solutions for problems; some real, some dreamed up by participants. The campers will learn much; many won’t notice because they will be having too much fun. One can’t really “teach” concepts like design thinking and entrepreneurial mindset. Learners learn by doing, making and correcting mistakes and wrong assumptions. Young people, and old for that matter, hunger for this kind of learning. We believe this kind of experiential learning, coupled with the vast body of knowledge available via the Internet is the most effective way to learn.

Design Thinking is Essential in Search of Solutions

Design thinking is a kind of thinking essential in effectively solving problems. Solving problems not only in our careers, but also in our personal lives, especially when serving others, should be our biggest aspiration. Learning to solve problems for others should be the recurring theme in our academic and career goals.

Design thinking, sometimes called empathetic design, involves using techniques to empathetically solve problems. The empathetic part means you learn to “put yourself in people’s shoes” if you are going to try to solve a problem for them. Entrepreneurial mindset is about using the mindset of an entrepreneur to implement the empathetic solutions. Combining design thinking and entrepreneurial mindset becomes innovation which is all about making the solutions available to others whether customers, coworkers or bosses.

How We Interest Youth in STEM

Solutions to the world’s problems involve learning science, technology, engineering and math, also known as STEM. For the last couple of decades, we in the United States have tried to figure out how to encourage youth interest in STEM. We are finally learning that all we need to do to interest youth in STEM is to let them make solutions in a Fab Lab or maker space environment. Youth will learn whatever they need to learn in order to make their project solution work.

Fortunately, more and more educators are realizing the value of making, i.e. experiential education and now some of the nation’s largest corporations are too. Our regional educational cooperative, Greenbush, and tech giant, Verizon and the National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship (NACCE) are collaborating with Fab Lab ICC to make these day camps possible.

 

Greenbush Summer Camps at Fab Lab ICC

For the second year, we’ll be working with Greenbush to make six week-long morning camps available starting June 4 and running through the end of July. Each camp is scheduled to run from Monday through Thursday, 9am to 12 noon and includes lunch in partnership with USD 446. These camps will take place at Fab Lab ICC and are structured, new this year, so youth can participate in more than one. Topics are “Design It, Build It, Take it Home”, “Jr. Entrepreneurship”, “Robotics”, and “Advanced Entrepreneurship.” Cost of each camp is just $40 (includes lunch) and we always have need based scholarships available so that no one has to miss camp due to finances. Follow the registration links at www.fablabicc.org.

STEM Camp for Middle School Girls

In late February, we received a grant notification from NACCE in partnership with Verizon that allows us to offer a 3-week, full-day STEM camp for 100 ascending middle school girls at no charge for the girls. The Verizon Foundation is picking up the substantial cost of this camp for which we’ll provide not only the camp, but also breakfast and lunch each day and transportation to bus stops throughout the area. Learning experiences include design thinking, 3D printing, augmented reality and social entrepreneurship. Each girl will receive a Verizon tablet to use for the camp and if they attend regularly, they get to keep the tablet. This camp will run from July 16 to August 3; 9 am to 4 pm each day Monday through Friday. For this size group, we’ll use ICC West and we’ve hired five teachers and drafted several volunteers to give each camper plenty of individual attention. Registration for this camp is at www.nacce.com/STEM4Girls. This is just the second year of this program nationwide. Last year five community colleges launched the first camps. This year, only 16 community colleges in the United States have been selected and we are honored to be one of them.

We expect all camps to fill so we encourage people to register early. These young campers will be so busy having fun, they won’t even realize the life’s lessons they are learning that will help them in their academic, career and personal lives.

 

Jim Correll is the director of Fab Lab ICC at the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship on the campus of Independence Community College. He can be reached at (620) 252-5349, by email at jcorrell@indycc.edu or Twitter @jimcorrellks.

 

Published in the Independence Daily Reporter May 2018

Construction is now underway on the Fab Lab ICC expansion building. Recently on May 1, the concrete footings were poured to be followed soon by the floor in preparation of delivery of the pre-fab building components (some assembly required) later in May.

We use the term expansion building to indicate it’s not a building we’ll move into, but rather expand into. So, in addition to the nearly 8,000 square feet, we occupy now, we’ll be adding an additional 6,400 square feet. The new building will house a paint booth, welding stations, a business incubator and a new studio into which we will move our wide-format printing, still image and video studio and our electronics work stations. The project went out for bid during the first part of February 2018 with completion in early fall, 2018.

At $700,000 the project is not huge as far as building projects go, but it is the first new building on the ICC campus in about 20 years. It’s quite remarkable that the concept and related funding for this project has come about in just two short years. Interesting to note is the fact that the project did not come about with a primary purpose of serving academic programs. This project is a part of our development of a new tool in rural economic development; assisting entrepreneurs and small business owners in starting and building their businesses to collectively make substantial contributions to area employment and, indeed, rural area economies.

Economic Development is Changing

There’s a continuing nationwide debate about the effectiveness of the traditional model of economic development that involves attempting to lure big companies to come and build large facilities that will employ many people. In the northeast, they call this “chasing smokestacks,” a reference to the businesses that used to characterize the industry base in the northeast. The challenge is in the large concessions and abatements necessary to get the “smokestack.” Many times, when the benefits of the concessions and abatements are exhausted, the smokestack leaves after engaging in a new auction to see who will pay the most to attract it to a new area.

Entrepreneurship Can Help Large Numbers Even in Tiny Markets

Entrepreneurship and small business ownership have the greatest potential to help the largest number of people, worldwide, even in areas too tiny to effectively bid on the smokestacks. One-hundred small business owners are the equivalent of a company coming to an area, bringing 100 jobs; only the small businesses generally don’t receive abatements and financial concessions. Some of the 100 businesses will grow to need employees and thus we have a tool to grow from within. We offer access to Fab Lab ICC and our services through memberships available to anyone in our “community” without geographic or other limitations and this includes many entrepreneurs and small business owners working to start and grow their businesses.

We Need More Start-Ups

New business start-ups across America are down and we need to do something to inspire a new generation of problem-solving entrepreneurs to start and grow businesses. We need to change the mindset from one that thinks new businesses require massive planning and funding to a mindset realizing that 98% of new businesses have always started small—with $10,000 or less in start-up funding—validating their markets early and then growing, some to become large employers.

Expansion Building Funding

This is the reason the United States Economic Development Administration is funding 50% of the Fab Lab ICC building expansion. They see the need to have more business start-ups and they believe the Fab Lab can be a catalyst toward that end. The Independence Community College board of trustees will provide $250,000 toward the matching funds required for the other 50% of project cost. The remaining $100,000 has come from individuals and a couple of non-tax based organizations.

New Model for Work Force Training

In addition to our efforts to grow small businesses, we will provide a new brand of workforce training, called Fab Force, that will emphasize entrepreneurial thinking, a variety of technical knowledge skills and experiential project-based learning. Eventually, this kind of learning will be a big attraction to traditional students looking for an exceptional and affordable experience during their first two years after high school.

We believe the combination of the Fab Lab maker space and an entrepreneurial mindset can be an economic driver in rural communities all over the United States and the world, even those too small to afford the cost of attracting large employers.

 

Jim Correll is the director of Fab Lab ICC at the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship on the campus of Independence Community College. He can be reached at (620) 252-5349, by email at jcorrell@indycc.edu or Twitter @jimcorrellks.

 

Published in the Independence Daily Reporter April 2018

Building a winning team was not part of a strategic plan of building Fab Lab ICC. Indeed, there was no strategic plan, however, there has been and still are “planning-on-the-go.”

Yet, we’ve ended up with a great team; growing in number and learning to work together more effectively every week. As I look back over the last three and one-half years, I believe I can see some things that happened that have led to this winning team we have at Fab Lab ICC right now. Some of it was done intentionally, much just happened and some is being learned as we move forward. This method has not involved looking at a single resume, yet I would put our results up against the most regimented hiring best practices.

Started With the Why

First, we always try to convey our “why,” inspired by Simon Sinek’s TED Talk (YouTube: Simon Sinek, Why). In the beginning, our “why” was to help people learn to make something. After the first few months, we started to see the increase in people’s self-efficacy (a psychological term for a special kind of self-confidence.) Today, our “why” is simply to increase the self-efficacy of everyone involved in Fab Lab ICC. This includes people of all ages, from all walks of life and in all stages of life. The Fab Lab experience seems to affect nearly everyone in a positive way. Our team members share this “why” and I believe it is an important factor in making our team work well together.

The Team Grew Organically Along With Our Needs

One day in July of 2014, in the ICC library, I spoke with Tim Haynes, who I didn’t know very well. He was excited to show me an Internet story about some people that were building bicycles out of bamboo. I knew right then and there that he was the one I wanted to come on board as the Lab manager.

Activity and opportunities exploded over the first couple of years of operation until we worked hard to get another staff position approved; one we would call “Program Developer.” I had worked near the ICC instruction office early-on in my time at ICC and had seen how Laura Schaid worked in that office. When I found out she might be available to transition to the Lab, I knew she would be a good fit.

Melissa Ashford, officially a faculty, not Lab staff member, knows of the magic of experiential learning, a key benefit of a maker environment and part of our “why.” She believes in the “why” so strongly that she has moved into our domain and will conduct most all of her computer and technology classes in our buildings and will incorporate making and doing in all of them. As a side benefit, she’s also turned her love of sewing into the beginnings of “Sew Fab”, a fabric division of Fab Lab ICC.

The Team Now Includes Contract Vendors and Volunteers

In addition, we’ve incorporated contract vendors such as Joanne Smith and Miranda Eastwood, dba Fab Creative services. Fab Creative is helping us administer and manage two grant programs that we would not be able to take on without help.

We’ve cultivated a growing network of volunteers who help us keep the lab open with extended hours for our members. Some are working full-time in their careers, some are retired. They all share our “why” and are willing to give of their time to help.

As we build the team, we struggle to put structure and documentation into place, including written and video operating procedures to minimize the learning curve when new staff, volunteers, members, and students want to learn to accomplish tasks of make things. The team is constantly evolving and changing in response to new conditions and opportunities. We trust each other and we cover for each other as we work to build programs and experiences for our members, students, and community members.

 

Jim Correll is the director of Fab Lab ICC at the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship on the campus of Independence Community College. He can be reached at (620) 252-5349, by email at jcorrell@indycc.edu or Twitter @jimcorrellks.

 

Published in the Independence Daily Reporter April 2018

Few Regrets

I have few regrets. I don’t regret marrying and starting a photography business immediately after graduating from Garden City Community College (GCCC) in 1976. I don’t regret having several “careers” over the last forty-plus years. I don’t regret waiting until about 1990 to go back to school, while working full-time, to earn my undergraduate degree in Business Management from Newman University in Wichita. Most of the work I’ve done in these “careers” has involved either starting something from nothing or creating some kind of organization and systems out of chaos. I learned many, many lessons over the years; many of them the hard way. Today, I believe the pieces of this life have come together to make me a good fit to be a Fab Lab director.

Two Regrets

Indeed, I can think of only two regrets. One is that I quit playing the electric bass when I left GCCC and the other is that for many years after graduation, I didn’t read books. I took up the bass again about a year ago. I thoroughly enjoy it although playing weekly in the church band is about all the time I can carve out for it in my world today. A few years ago, I began reading again, not two or three books per week as some I know, probably more like one or two books per month. I read a variety of books, fiction and non-fiction about a variety of topics but a majority has to do with individual entrepreneurs that have started small and become successful. Many others have to do with how we can do a better job of preparing youth to be successful and make positive contributions to our world.

CaptiveAire Started Small

I just finished a book that covers both. In “Entrepreneurial Life” entrepreneur Robert Luddy chronicles the upstart of what is now known as “CaptiveAire Systems, Inc.” He started the company in 1976 with only $1,300. The company has grown to be a global leader in the manufacture and sales of commercial kitchen ventilation systems. This company became successful by a relentless focus on customer service while lowering costs. He has used the lower cost of manufacturing to offer customers more value, rather than just padding his pockets.

In 1997, using knowledge acquired through CaptiveAire and his observations of the shortcomings of public K-12 education, he began the process of opening a charter school in North Carolina named “Franklin Academy” after Benjamin Franklin. Since then, he’s been involved in the creation of “Saint Thomas More Academy” and “Thales Academy.”

 

 

Shared Outcomes

Leadership and management at CaptiveAire are outcome based and so the philosophy of the charter schools has also been outcome based. In the book, he lists 15 of these outcomes that are communicated repeatedly to the students. Teacher performance is measured by these outcomes.

Here are few of my favorites.

• Unfailing Integrity compels a person to follow a strong code of e3ithcs and honesty in all situations.
• Astute Problem Solving leads one to identify the solutions to a problem, evaluate the likely outcomes, assess risk, and choose correctly.
• Competent Technical Skills allow individuals to join modern technological industries and navigate modern life.
• Dreams and Aspirations to Change the World help us remember that directed efferts bring us closer to our goals.
• Traditional American Values and Entrepreneurialism drive a leader to build and sustain a thriving economy.
• Self-Reliance creates confidence to depend on one’s own powers and resources to meet all of one’s needs.
• A Cooperative and Contributive Team Member knows how to collaborate to achieve successful results.
• A Strong Work Ethic links perseverance, reliability, and honesty.

These and the other 15 outcomes in the book should be adopted by business and industry as a means of professional development and advancement of their employees. Training programs and initiatives should combine these outcomes with whatever specific business or technical outcomes are require for a given employee. These outcomes would go a long way in solving the dreaded “soft skills” problems experienced by so many employers today.

 

Jim Correll is the director of Fab Lab ICC at the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship on the campus of Independence Community College. He can be reached at (620) 252-5349, by email at jcorrell@indycc.edu or Twitter @jimcorrellks.