Grantee Spotlight: Kent State University (Part 3)
Pivoting in Prison: Building a Pathway to Pitching
In Fall 2021, Kent State University launched a pilot program in partnership with the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction that provides individuals incarcerated at Trumbull Correctional Institution with the opportunity to complete courses toward a bachelor’s degree with an embedded certificate in entrepreneurship. In addition to completing program coursework, students are connected to LaunchNET Kent State, which provides venture advising services, mentorship, and workshops to help participating students explore the viability of business ideas. KSU is engaged with community resources to ensure pathways are developed that allow released students to access internships and other resources that may help them eventually work for a business or start their own business. There are currently 60 justice involved learners enrolled in the program.
Burton D. Morgan Foundation is proud to support this program and to share a blog provided to the foundation by Kaitlyn Phillips, Graduate Assistant, LaunchNET Kent State. Phillips was brought on to facilitate programming and provide focused entrepreneurial support to TCI students.
This is the third blog post in this series. The first two posts can be found here and here.
As the Fall 2024 semester kicks off at Kent State University, a group of students gather in a classroom at Trumbull Correctional Institution (TCI). They listen closely as a guest speaker shares the story of their entrepreneurial journey, their accomplishments and challenges. This unconventional classroom holds the promise of new opportunities for these budding entrepreneurs, who are determined to carve a path towards an innovative future.
Entrepreneurial education is most important in places like TCI, where the entrepreneurial mindset can have a vastly positive impact. Reentry is oftentimes met with obstacles, such as increased difficulty in securing jobs, education opportunities, and aid from social welfare programs. About 60% of formerly incarcerated individuals struggle to find employment, even though this population seeks out employment more frequently. Being formerly incarcerated also disproportionately affects minorities, with unemployment rates sitting at a staggering 43.6% for Black women, 35.2% for Black men, and 23.2% for White women. These challenges can create a cyclical environment leading to recidivism in over two-thirds of former state prisoners.
As mentioned in our previous blog posts, LaunchNET has provided entrepreneurial services to Kent State’s students in TCI since Fall 2021. After starting out with a one-on-one advising approach, we’ve transitioned our focus towards conducting business-oriented workshops and hosting guest speakers with expertise in entrepreneurship and direct industry experience. This transition occurred because while one-on-one advising sessions provided valuable insights into the students’ ideas, the recommended "next steps" were often impractical for our TCI students to execute given the limited resources available to them for independent research.
LaunchNET launched a virtual entrepreneurial speaker series in Fall 2023, with Kent State's TCI students attending 5 workshops with different speakers and topics relating to entrepreneurship. These workshops allowed the students to explore tactics, tools, and technologies used by entrepreneurs in their business functions. Guest speakers shared their entrepreneurial accomplishments, challenges, and advice with the students, sparking new dialogues in the classroom. The students posed numerous questions during each speaker session and never hesitated to offer suggestions for future workshop topics, many of which were implemented in the following spring semester.
In the spring 2024 semester, we were especially excited to host LaunchNET’s first pitch competition within the prison. The Ready. Set. Launch! Pitch Competition served as a way to recognize the efforts of our dedicated learners and give them the chance to apply their knowledge.
The competition featured five students delivering 1-to-2-minute pitches to a select panel of entrepreneurial judges. All students received valuable pitch feedback, and the top 3 contestants received certificates of recognition. Our winning student came in first place with a venture idea for a nonprofit organization supporting displaced transgender teens.
This fall semester, we are continuing LaunchNET’s virtual entrepreneurship workshop series. With a few returning students and many new faces in the program, we plan to host seven total workshops in the fall with guest speakers in areas such as finance, social entrepreneurship, AI, and more. Another pitch competition is on the books for spring 2025 to give these students an opportunity to apply what they’ve learned to their own venture ideas and present this knowledge amongst peers and industry experts.
To date, the Kent State TCI program has had three students reenter society. These students are using their entrepreneurial skill sets to navigate reentry. LaunchNET is excited to continue offering support to assist in this programming through entrepreneurial advising and events.