Entrepreneurship for rural youth and communities.

An entrepreneurial mindset and skill set is necessary to launch a business, be competitive for high growth jobs, and to thrive in a rapidly evolving global economy. Employers seek to hire people who demonstrate analytical thinking, comfort with ambiguity, creative confidence, effective communication, and inclusive leadership.

Public schools and workforce development must reimagine career education to integrate and prioritize entrepreneurship.  Doing so will ensure more students access high growth careers and communities everywhere experience shared economic prosperity. Experts in workforce and economic development assert that training to skills associated with entrepreneurship is critical for preparing young people for jobs of the future.  

Rural communities experience unique obstacles for new business creation and innovation.  Oftentimes, youth from rural communities have no access to entrepreneurship education in high school or from other training programs. To that end, through our Rural Youth Initiatives, 3DS partners with public schools and career & technical education to design and integrate entrepreneurship programs for students and teachers. 

Over the course of a school year, students work in teams to build technology enabled solutions by learning and applying core principles of entrepreneurship.  Each capstone experience culminates in a pitch event and student showcase featuring functional prototypes.  Rural Youth initiatives engage experts from technology and innovation as mentors and recruit stakeholders from the local business community to support students’ ventures.  Encouraging every young person to take advantage of entrepreneurship’s transformative potential will create social and economic value for individuals and communities. 

For the 2021-22 and 2022-23 school years, we are thrilled to partner with Rural Schools Innovation Zone, Premont ISD, Del Mar College, & Career Craft to support student teams and educators from 5 career academies.  This initiative is a component of the national Rural Tech Competition.  Read more about it here.

3 Day Startup is working to expand our impact in rural communities.  If you’re interested in learning more, please contact team@3daystartup.org.