School of Education awarded two E-nitiative grants

Two faculty members in Syracuse University's School of Education have received E-nitiative grants to help promote entrepreneurship with Syracuse-area students.

Marion Wilson, Director of Community Initiatives in the Visual Arts, will design and build "601 Tully," a sustainable storefront and community arts center in Syracuse's Near West Side neighborhood. Tiffany Koszalka, School of Education associate professor, will work with Marilyn Arnone, an associate research professor in Syracuse's iSchool, to create Curiosity Creek, an after-school computer club that will engage middle schoolers and college students in entrepreneurship.

Both projects are made possible, in part, through an E-nitiative award. E-nitiative (the Syracuse Campus-Community Entrepreneurship Initiative) is funded by a grant from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation of Kansas City, Mo., focusing on entrepreneurship in the arts, technology, and our neighborhoods. For more about E-nitiative, visit www.entrepreneurship.syr.edu.

The "601 Tully" project will focus on arts, writing, publishing and emerging entrepreneurialism created in collaboration with Fowler High School, Blodgett K-8 School, area elementary schools, SU and SUNY ESF. The project will be led by Wilson through her "Social Sculpture" class, which will work with the School of Education, School of Management, School of Architecture, SUNY ESF and Fowler High's Business Academy to develop a feasible business plan for the storefront. Participating Fowler students are eligible for college credit, and college students will gain experience in community-based design-build work.

"My enthusiasm for collective art practices is invigorated by E-nitiative's generous support," Wilson said. "Working collectively with artists, architects, educators, and neighbors creates a porousness to the Near West Side Scholarship in Action endeavors."

"Curiosity Creek" is an environmentally-themed after-school computer club that uses innovative storytelling to engage middle school students in entrepreneurial activities. The students develop knowledge of the environment and improve their reading, writing, and technological skills by creating new materials for the Curiosity Creek Web site, designed by Arnone for K-2 students. Club members will learn to assess their audience's needs; design, develop and test unique technology-based products; and present their product to the public. Koszalka and Arnone will also create and test online modules to help SU students develop better entrepreneurial, innovation, and creative educational product development skills.

Koszalka and Arnone hope to eventually expand their project, with ideas that include a television show, a summer camp and overseas work. The project was selected by the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) to be showcased at its annual convention in Kentucky in October as an example of outstanding instructional design in practice and a promising program for students' development.

--Sapna Kollali