Entrepreneurial Engagement Ohio

Statewide Ohio STEM Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programming - In 2012, EEO entered into a collaboration with the Ohio Academy of Science ("OAS") to develop a statewide Ohio Youth STEM Commercialization and Entrepreneurship program, which later became known as the Believe in Ohio ("BiO") program. The BiO program included many of the program elements that EEO had earlier developed for Northeast Ohio. The BiO program implemented recommendations of the Ohio Board of Regents ("OBOR") to create an innovation pathway between the K-12 education system and the University System of Ohio. The OBOR recommendations included: 1) "today's students should be exposed to an entrepreneurial curriculum, provided with real life experiences and supported in promoting their intellectual ideas; 2) Ohio should "promote" business plan competitions with meaningful preparation awards and follow-up benefits and, 3) Ohio should "offer competitive full and partial tuition 'Entrepreneurship Scholarships" for promising students who plan to study and engage in entrepreneurship, akin to athletic scholarships."During 2013, the State of Ohio provided $5,000,000 in funding that the EEO/OAS collaborative team used to successfully implement the BiO program during the 2014-15, 2015-16, and 2016-17 school years. However, during 2017, due to the state budget shortfalls, funding for the BiO program was discontinued, leaving BiO's 11,000+ student participants and their teachers without a program. During the fiscal and school years ended June 30, 2019, 2018 and 2017, EEO continued to offer programming similar to BiO to a limited number of high schools in Northeast Ohio under the Northeast Ohio Innovates name. During this period, EEO received funding from a number of private funders to continue its programming. Throughout this time period EEO and OAS sought to obtain renewed funding from the State of Ohio that would allow a restored BiO program to operate for the 2019/2020 & 2020/2021 school years.In July 2019, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine signed Ohio's 2020-2021 biennial budget which included a $2,000,000 "appropriation of funds for the Ohio High School STEM Innovation and Ohio College Scholarship Program and directed the Chancellor of the Ohio Department of Higher Education to direct the appropriation to the Ohio Academy of Science, in collaboration with Entrepreneurial Engagement Ohio for the continuing development and implementation of recommendations of the Ohio Board of Regents that seek to create an innovation pathway between Ohio's K-12 education system and Ohio's colleges and universities and post-secondary career centers and vocational schools." With this appropriation, EEO and OAS collaboratively continued development and implementation of the BiO program during the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 school years, the budget of which provides for the payment of $120,000 in management fees to each of the collaborative partners in each of the fiscal years ending June 30, 2020 and June 30, 2021.As a result of the pandemic related disruption of Ohio's education system during the last two school years, it became necessary to significantly overhaul and enhance the Believe in Ohio curriculum to ensure that it could support teachers and students in any learning environment, whether in-school, remote or on a blended basis. Much of the work required to overhaul and enhance the BiO program was done by EEO.As part of the Believe in Ohio program during the 2020-2021 school year, EEO has not conducted any STEM Entrepreneurship and Innovation Forums due to the ongoing pandemic.