Skyline College is an open-access community college with a diverse student body, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the San Francisco Bay. Despite the huge quantities of intellectual and venture capital flowing into nearby Silicon Valley, many of these students have spent their whole lives depending on limited resources and their own hard work.
I had the thrill of being at Skyline on a recent day when nationally renowned engineers and entrepreneurs – the ones who might usually pass right the campus on their way to meetings in Palo Alto and Mountain View – gathered to inspire, empower and invite these students to follow their boldest dreams.
Blair Evans, an MIT alum who founded InciteFocus, introduced the students to their new Innovation Center, which features a Fab Lab – short for fabrication laboratory – where tools like 3D printers and laser cutters allow them to build almost anything they can dream up. Blair, a certified Fab Academy Guru, has been training the staff at Skyline to run and maintain the Fab Lab and guide students on how to make the most of it.
My colleagues and I also announced a 16-week STEM Entrepreneur Accelerator curriculum designed by successful serial entrepreneurs to help ignite student innovation. Skyline students can begin taking this class in the in the fall, covering topics including 21st century leadership, how to build prototypes in the Fab Lab, how to create sales and marketing plans, and the habits of super achievers. And when they finish the 16-week program, students will have the opportunity to win seed money to start or grow their business through Base 11’s regional and national business pitch competitions.
We announced the four talented Skyline students who have already been accepted to this summer’s internship programs at Caltech, University of California, Irvine and the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.
Entrepreneur Sig Anderman, who co-founded Ellie Mae to develop software that reduces paperwork in the mortgage industry, was also on hand to discuss hisSpringboard Initiative. This workforce development program aims to help employ 100,000 African American students in software development, coding, and tech support jobs by 2025.
None of this would have been possible without the extraordinary vision of Skyline’s president, Regina Stanback Stroud, Ed.D., who partnered with Base 11 to bring these Ivy League-quality resources and programs to her students, with the intention of rocketing them to new heights.
At Skyline, I saw so many vital pieces of Base 11’s vision coming together to ignite innovation and entrepreneurship for these promising, diverse community college students. Together with our partners, on that day and every day, we are building a direct pipeline for promising students to find their way to success with high-demand, well-paid jobs in STEM and entrepreneurship.
Are you interested in building the pipeline for high-potential, low-resource community college students into entrepreneurship and STEM careers? Join us!
(Pictured in photo, left to right: John W. Hines – Base 11 Advisory Board Member; Landon Taylor – Base 11 CEO; Blair Evans – Partner from Incite Focus/Fab Lab Guru; Ingrid Ellerbe – Base 11 SVP, Partner and Program Engagement; Dr. Regina Stanback Stroud – Skyline College President; Dr. Sara Perkins – Skyline College Vice President; Instruction Raymond Hernandez – Skyline College Dean, Science/Mathematics/Technology Division; Angélica Garcia – Skyline College Vice President, Student Services)