Be open and be open to the experience
That’s the quote I now have displayed on my letterboard sitting on my desk. This quote came from communication consultant Todd Parker at the Alumni360 EntreArts camp I attended last week. Mr. Parker was one of the amazing speakers who came to encourage students. The EntreArts camp welcomes students ages ten to eighteen to learn about the different ways they can combine their creativity and entrepreneurship skills to create a career for themselves. These dynamic speakers are actual entrepreneurs that gave us real life lessons and interactive activities.
Todd Parker was the perfect speaker to open up the camp because of his abundance of enthusiasm. He spoke to the students about the importance of effective communication. I loved his lesson because communication is not something that we really think about as a skill to work on. He taught us how communication is advisory, addressed, situational, ans stylized and what each of those descriptions mean. His personality got the students engaged and entertained and he was such a great storyteller!
Another speaker that I really enjoyed was Alegre Ramos, who created her own gazpacho recipe and made a business from it. She was very inspiring because showed how someone can take their passion and make it into an enterprise. For her, it was cooking and living a healthy lifestyle. She also discussed what being an entrepreneur is like and what to expect. The road isn’t straight and easy for entrepreneurs! But she claims it’s still worth the adventure. It was especially interesting to get the perspective of an actual entrepreneur who has gone through the process.
Entrepreneurship and creativity is important for youth because in school we are taught to go to school and only get a job working for someone else, which is okay but we are not exposed to other options. Entrepreneurship allows for creativity, something that is not, sadly, very present in school. Students should know that they can be creative and make something of their own that can solve a real problem.
I mostly enjoyed listening to the presentations of the other students when we shared our ideas. It was amazing to see all the great ideas everyone had and I think it was the perfect way to end the camp because students got to actually exercise their creativity and put into action everything we learned from the speakers.
Overall the EntreArts camp is a unique experience and opportunity that only will benefit students in the future. I hope more students come to check it out next year!
Written By Jackie D., Alumni360 Scholar, Incoming Freshman at Cal Poly San Juis Obispo
