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CBNA to Offer College Credit for Entrepreneurship

Dr. JoAnn Zylak, a faculty member at Coe-Brown Northwood Academy, has successfully completed the BizInnovator Teacher Certification and is now able to offer high school juniors and seniors University of Iowa college credit for completing the Entrepreneurship course, which can be transferred to other secondary educational institutions as necessary.

Developed by the Jacobson Institute for Youth Entrepreneurship at the University of Iowa, BizInnovator is a comprehensive online entrepreneurship curriculum that enables educators to teach the entrepreneurial mindset, encouraging creativity, innovation, critical thinking, and problem solving—and also to prepare students for success in their chosen career path.

This program is a key element in our initiative to promote Entrepreneurship to students at the local, state and national level. The University of Iowa tuition fee (over $1,000 value) has been waived and students simply pay a course fee of $150. The program is ideal for students who have a passion to pave new paths, create new things or solve problems. The Entrepreneurship course and Innovation software provides students with a framework to apply these interests to the world of business.

Local economies depend on an ongoing creation of successful new businesses. BizInnovator is a proven curriculum to provide our youth and young adults with the knowledge and confidence to be innovators for our community.

Another top priority is to boost student interest and achievement in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). The U.S. Department of Commerce estimates that jobs in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) will grow 17 percent by 2018—nearly double the growth for non-STEM fields. By 2018, the U.S. will have more than 1.2 million unfilled STEM jobs because there will not be enough qualified workers to fill them. STEM is where jobs are today and where the job growth will be in the future.

BizInnovator compliments the STEM initiative, giving students the know-how to take achievements in STEM to market.

For more information about BizInnovator, please visit www.bizinnovator.com. Students seeking information about registering for the next Entrepreneurship course at CBNA, should see their Guidance Counselors or email Dr. Zylak for more information at jzylak@coebrown.org.