Entrepreneurship Education for Students

RISE Impact Halifax is a student entrepreneurship program for middle and high school students in Halifax County. Developed by RISE, the program helps students build ideas, develop skills, and create real-world impact through hands-on experiences. Learn more >

Jocelyn Forest, RISE Entrepreneurship Education Coordinator, is available to provide Entrepreneurship Workshops for middle school and high school students across Southern Virginia.

Workshops range from 90 minutes to a full day, and can be one-time or recurring over a set time period. Students explore how businesses work, develop problem-solving and creative thinking skills, and engage with topics like marketing, business finance, and customer discovery. 

Since 2021, RISE has used the CO.STARTERS Generator curriculum through a regional license held by the SOVA Innovation Hub for RISE. This allows us to prepare hundreds of students across the region with a strong foundation in entrepreneurship concepts and skills.

CO.STARTERS Generator offers a flexible, hands-on approach to learning the fundamentals of entrepreneurship. Using this as a starting point, RISE Student Entrepreneurship curriculum introduces students to key topics, including:

• Self-Awareness
• Time Management
• Teamwork
• Leadership Skills
• Personal Finance Basics
• Business Finance
• Supply Chain and Logstics
• Sales and Marketing
• Design Thinking

Jocelyn Forest, M.Ed., RISE Entrepreneurship Education Coordinator, is available to provide Design Thinking Workshops for middle and high school students in Southern Virginia.

What is design thinking?

Design thinking is a mindset and approach to problem-solving and innovation anchored around human-centered design. In each collaborative, hands-on workshop, typically 90 minutes to a full day, students are invited to tackle real-world challenges, such as community or school-based issues.  Students use the design thinking process to learn empathy-based, iterative problem-solving skills and develop a practical solution.

The design thinking process typically involves five iterative stages:

1. Empathize: Research user needs.
2. Define: State user needs and problems.
3. Ideate: Challenge assumptions and create ideas.
4. Prototype: Start creating solutions.
5. Test: Try the solutions out.

Jocelyn Forest, M.Ed., RISE Entrepreneurship Education Coordinator, is available to provide mentoring to educators who want to infuse entrepreneurship skills into any class or club. This is available for educators in the RISE Southern Virginia region.

If you are a Virginia classroom teacher, club advisor, or homeschool parent who wants to prepare your students with valuable entrepreneurship skills, we are happy to share our resources with you. Please contact Jocelyn for mentoring support. Topics that you can discuss may include:

• Planning and customization of entrepreneurship education resources
• Sharing of resources like videos, worksheets, and activities
• Co-facilitation or full facilitation with the educator mentee 
• Post-delivery debrief and support

Jocelyn Forest, M.Ed., RISE Entrepreneurship Education Coordinator, is available to assist educators with coordinating field trips to makerspaces and innovation hubs, including but not limited to:

• SOVA Innovation Hub – South Boston, VA
• SEED Innovation Hub – Farmville, VA
• Creativity Lab at the Danville Science Center – Danville, VA
• P&HCC Thomas P. Dalton IDEA Center –  Martinsville, VA
• Southern Virginia Higher Education Center – South Boston, VA

Ready to plan your entpreneurship-themed field trip? Contact Jocelyn to get started.