SAN BRUNO, CA--(Marketwired - Apr 6, 2016) - Students at community colleges across the country who have the potential to develop into the next world-changing science, technology, engineering or math (STEM) professional are lacking just one component to success -- resources. Today, the nonprofit Base 11 and Skyline College launched a partnership that brings students the tools -- and the training -- to become the next great STEM entrepreneur.
Officials announced their plans at the opening of the campus's new Base 11 Innovation Center, which features a Fab Lab -- short for fabrication laboratory -- developed by MIT researchers. It will be one of about 110 Fab Labs in the country, and the first on a California community college campus. The expert design, installation and operational training for the lab is led by Blair Evans, director of Incite Focus, an MIT alumnus and certified Fab Academy guru. Within the Fab Lab, tools like 3D printers and laser cutters enable students and community members to design and produce almost anything they can imagine.
To accelerate innovation within the lab, Base 11 is also rolling out a 16-week entrepreneurial course at Skyline College designed to help students turn their classroom learning into new product ideas and then teach them how to create prototypes in the Fab Lab, develop a business plan, and pitch their product. The course will culminate in a pitch contest, with the top pitches advancing to Base 11's national competition.
"Base 11 has brought a tremendous array of resources to Skyline College that most community college students would never have access to," said Regina Stanback Stroud, Ed.D., president of Skyline College. "By bringing Ivy League-quality resources to our campus, we are leveling the playing field for students."
Base 11's partnership with Skyline College represents a new "Entrepreneur Accelerator" model, which Base 11's leaders plan to replicate at other community colleges across the country. Base 11 focuses on high-potential students who possess limited resources, and aims to provide them with the tools and support necessary to develop as STEM entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs, with the end-goal of catapulting them into higher-paying jobs, acceptance and scholarship opportunities at top-tier universities, and direct access to the funding and mentorship needed to launch the business ventures they create while in the program.
This "Entrepreneur Accelerator" expands upon the successful Base 11 internship program, which awards the highest performing Skyline College students with paid summer residency internships at Caltech, University of Southern California, the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, and the University of California, Irvine.