Tag: kids

  • Generator Rolls Out New Opportunities With Marble Coasters

    Generator Rolls Out New Opportunities With Marble Coasters

    [vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ width=”1/1″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default”][vc_column_text]Vermont Refugee Resettlement Program (VRRP) hosts a free annual summer camp for youths of refugee and recent migrant families. This year, 12 VRRP youth visited Generator with CEDO AmeriCorps team members, Saylia Moo and Elizabeth to see STEM concepts in action. Generator’s AmeriCorps Outreach Associate, Jon Weisbecker, led a marble coaster workshop exploring how makers prototype, collaborate and fabricate ideas into reality. By the end of their time,  students minds were racing as fast at the marble coasters. One student said, “This was awesome! I really want to come back here and create a portable weightlifting system. When can we come back?” Others hope to return to use the woodshop and laser cutter down the road. Generator is looking forward to expanding programming to serve refugee and recent immigrant families.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ width=”1/1″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default”][image_with_animation image_url=”5666″ alignment=”” animation=”Fade In” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”][/vc_column][/vc_row]

  • Middle Schoolers Rock Out Their Rockers At Generator

    Middle Schoolers Rock Out Their Rockers At Generator

    [vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ width=”1/1″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default”][heading]Middle Schoolers Rock Out Their Rockers At Generator[/heading][vc_column_text]Edmunds and Hunt Middle School are having their summer school program join Generator for a week-long Chair Design Workshop. Gaining inspiration from past designers, such as Charles and Ray Eames and Jean Prouvé, students will imagine, prototype and build their own chairs from a  single piece of plywood. Making furniture requires skills in design, planning, and fabrication. Students will work with talented artists and designers to learn how to blueprint, use adobe illustrator, and laser cut their creations to reality. The first session of the Chair Design Workshop is launching July 30th to August 3rd, dedicated to women’s education. Students will learn how to use the laser cutter to prototype their chair in cardboard. The final product will be laser cut plywood, hardware independent chair, painted or stained with a finish of their choice. The plywood chairs will be utilized in students’ schools; so they can share their final products with friends, family, and future persons.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ width=”1/1″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default”][image_with_animation image_url=”5638″ alignment=”” animation=”Fade In” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”][/vc_column][/vc_row]

  • Get Ready – Cause Here They Come – VTeen Entrepreneurs

    Randolph – Vermont Technical College/Vermont statewide (June 2017) – Action, Meaning, Structure, People; Trash to Treasure; Design Thinking; Pitching… what do they all have in common? Here’s how two dozen Vermont teens will spend a week “24/7” coming up with the next “big idea” at Vermont Technical College’s Randolph Center Campus with the Governor’s Institutes of Vermont (GIV) Entrepreneurship program.  Yes, these teenagers are spending their summer vacation time in residence learning to develop an “entrepreneurial mindset” to use in any career pathway or to create their own business enterprise.  Plus they’ll learn and participate in a mini-activity to create a bio-sand filtration system for clean drinking water with the Vermont Haiti Project to foster their social entrepreneurship knowledge and spirit. (https://www.vermonthaitiproject.org/)

    Beginning Saturday, June 24th– Friday June 30th – they’ll descend upon the Vermont Tech campus to work with a skilled team of experienced entrepreneurial business and education professionals to learn core business skills necessary to starting a business such as:  idea generation, sales/marketing, operations, financials – startup costs, cash flow and income projections, ethics, sustainability, being socially responsible, “pitching” as well as learn just as much about themselves as leaders.  These young enterprising students will get a chance to interact and get some coaching during the Institute from the recent winners of the Launch VT Collegiate and overall Launch VT 2017 Competition (www.launchvt.com), Max Robbins and Peter Silverman who are on the GIV Entrepreneurship week long team.

    The goal of the Institute is to empower and educate these Vermont students entering grades 10-12 about the power of entrepreneurship to transform their lives, communities, and the world.  In this fast-paced, fun collaborative program that starts with idea generation and evaluation, then moves through the business development stages, and finally, culminates in a business “Pitch” presentation six teams of students will “pitch” their business ideas to a team of expert business and faculty professionals in just six minutes each.   Plus one or two of the teams will have the chance to later pitch their idea(s) August 3rd at Vermont Tech during Fresh Tracks Capital Road Pitch “biker” Competition (https://www.freshtrackscap.com/event/road-pitch/)  one of the 10 stops along their 5 day marathon statewide bike ride.

    In addition to their interactive, experiential learning activities during the morning and dinner sessions they’ll hear from and network with outside business professionals, head to Burlington to visit Generator (https://generatorvt.com/) Select Design and BioTec Instruments to further enhance their business/entrepreneurial acumen.

    As the Program Director for the GIV Entrepreneurship Institute and VtSBDC Business Advisor/Student Entrepreneur Specialist, Laurel Butler’s hope is that students will walk away with:

    • The ability to view problems as opportunities they can act on now!
    • An entrepreneurial mindset and an increased confidence as an entrepreneurial leader!
    • How to break down perceived obstacles to starting a venture!
    • Knowledge about who they can connect with for advice – such as the: Vermont Small Business Development Center(VtSBDC)(https://www.vtsbdc.org/)

    Vermont Small Business Development Center, State Director, Linda Rossi: “The skills learned at this Institute will significantly advance the opportunities ahead for these students.  The entrepreneurial activities, experiential learning, and contacts made with some of Vermont’s key economic development leaders will be life changing, and position them well whether they become an employee in someone else’s businesses, or prepare to launch a business of their own.  And, we will be there to support those small business owners of the future run by the students of today”.

    Note: Vermont Technical College offers a Major and a Minor in Entrepreneurship.

    For information about the Governor’s Institutes of Vermont (GIV) programs– visit: https://www.giv.org/

    For specific information about the GIV Entrepreneurship Program contact Laurel Butler, VtSBDC Business Advisor 

    Laurel Butler
    Gender Equity Project Manager
    STEM Outreach & Experiential Education
    VERMONT TECH
    [email protected]  |  vtc.edu

    Business Advisor – Start up & Student Entrepreneur SpecialistVermont Small Business Development Center
    [email protected] | www.vtsbdc.org
    (802) 922-3692