Education & Entrepreneurship

My wife and I perused through a book fair at a local elementary school yesterday and both of us remarked how much we enjoyed them when we were kids. Both of us are avid readers and being surrounded by all the children of varying ages reading and buying books brought back many fond memories… So, what do book fairs and reading have to do with the VC ecosystem in OC? Well, as they say, reading is fundamental… It is therefore a cornerstone of a obtaining a good education… which, in turn, is a cornerstone of entrepreneurship…and entrepreneurs are at the core of any VC ecosystem. Follow my logic? Good, let’s move on.

Coincident or not, this week just happened to be Entrepreneurship Week in the United States and I spent the early morning hours today in Riverside, CA at Poly High School where I awarded certificates to 24 juniors and seniors in Mr. Rusty Bailey’s Economics class for participating in the NVCA’s “Big Idea Contest” coinciding with Entrepreneurship Week this week. I was impressed by the students passion and enthusiasm for the project and I can see why Mr. Bailey was recently bestowed Teacher of the Year honors. Their ideas were very good and I look forward to getting OC schools involved in next year’s contest – on that note, please email me if you are or have a local teacher/school that would like to participate as I’m on the NVCA MAGNET program’s executive committee and would love to get some local schools involved in the 2008 contest.

Speaking of education, Brad Feld has an interesting post on education and I tend to agree with his sentiment on these matters in that local socioeconomic leaders truly interested in stimulating their local entrepreneurial economy should always spend some time improving education in their region – especially K-12 science and math. We all have our part to do here so let’s get to work. Have a good weekend.