KEENzine1

ISSUE ONE 5 FEATURE They listened to doctors’ feedback, reassessed the market, identified opportunities to develop partnerships, and pursued other entrepreneurial strategies that turned the company around in the nick of time. Both engineers say they would have avoided a great deal of stress and heartache had they been exposed to the entrepreneurial mindset as part of their engineering education. Fortunately, thousands of U.S. engineering students are now getting that exposure – and the number is likely to grow. Several universities with undergraduate engineering programs have partnered with The Kern Family Foundation to create the Kern Entrepreneurship Education Network. KEEN, as it is better known, was established to support the development of entrepreneurially minded engineers who will have a positive and lasting impact on the U.S. economy. Equipping engineers with an entrepreneurial mindset gives them an edge in the marketplace, according to Dr. Joseph Saliba, provost and professor at the University of Dayton. “You are going to learn thermodynamics regardless of where you go,” Saliba says of engineering schools. “The added value is what you do beyond the classroom experience and what you do within the classroom experience that gives you a competitive edge in the marketplace. What skills and competencies will you need in order to be successful and competitive in a global environment? For me, that’s the added value that a KEEN entrepreneurial mindset will bring into its graduates.” These skills are part of the KEEN student outcomes (see pages 10-11) that inform a student’s education at any one of the Network universities, according to Doug Melton, KEEN program director. “Today more than ever, higher education is doing students a disservice if they graduate with problem-solving skills and technical competence alone,” he says. “Schools need to foster a mindset that transcends one discipline or area of study. Without a broad perspective and entrepreneurial approach, engineers – and everyone else in the U.S.– will see their jobs threatened and economic well-being diminished in the growing jobs war.” Gallup CEO Jim Clifton writes in “The Coming Jobs War” that the United States must do more to invest in entrepreneurial people. If trends remain as they are, by 2040 the U.S. market share of global GDP will shrink to 15 percent while China’s share will consume 35 percent. The result will be a “jobs Armageddon for America.” “At the absolute core of the American spirit is risk-taking, creativity. It is not just having a vision, but being bold enough to enact a vision. And that’s at the core of what KEEN stands for.” Dr. Steve Kaplan Continued on page 22 G l o b a l G r o s s D om e s t i c P r o d u c t “ True entrepreneurs build new jobs and increase overall demand and spending because they bring something new to the game. Either they take a current product or service and make it available to those who are not served or who are underserved, or they take a new idea and build enthusiasm, interest, and desire for it – a new demand.” Jim Clifton, Chairman and CEO of Gallup