So one day four years ago I received a message to contact Karen Gillie at Anthis Career Center. She wondered if I’d be willing to let a student interested in entrepreneurship visit me for a job shadow. That student was Zach Zuber, who became one of the founding members of the Innovation Center’s Student Venture Lab. Zach is now in Bloomington, IN where he stays active in entrepreneurship and interns with Sproutbox.
after winning a business plan competition
I had the opportunity to visit her entrepreneurship classes a few times to hear the pitches that student teams had prepared for regional competitions. Very impressive.
Karen’s graphics design class teaches skills with Photoshop. Illustrator, InDesign, and more. Their work is fantastic. The class – with some exceptional direction from Karen – took on the project of creating the entire art set for another Innovation Center student company, April Langschied’s Green ABC’s. Check out the fantastic artwork below – I challenge you to distinguish their work from that produced by any design agency! Then head to the iTunes stores for the free Green ABC’s iPad app!
Over the years Karen has helped hundreds of students understand – and practice – being entrepreneurial. Whether in entrepreneurship or other classes, her teaching style develops the skills of entrepreneurship – ownership, action, and responsibility.
This ends my series about entrepreneurial teachers, ending it where it started for me four years ago. Perhaps I’ll find more teachers to profile in the future, but for now I’ll just say, “Thanks Karen, for getting it all started! And, of course, for the great job you do every day!”
