Over the summer, I worked at the Tamer Center for Social Enterprise under Sandra Navalli. After spending a year learning about the justice-impacted community from Damon Phillips and Sandra in the ReEntry Acceleration Program (REAP), I pitched the idea for a practical workshop series aimed at bringing resource equity and entrepreneurship education to formerly incarcerated individuals.

This series, Startup Works, was designed to nurture entrepreneurial leadership in people with conviction histories and to interrupt the cycle of poverty and recidivism, but was open to everyone interested in inclusive entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial skill development. Not only would these practical workshops help students develop the practical skills necessary to kickstart and test their ideas as a (co)founder and/or part of a startup team, but they would also meet other participants who may become integral in developing a startup with them. Workshops would include topics aimed at developing a startup idea, opportunities to receive feedback, and advice on using legal and financial resources to further their startup. Startup Works teams were also connected to Columbia's network of advisors for focused mentorship sessions.

During my second year as a global EMBA student, I took classes focusing on launching startups, specifically social impact startups. I learned the skills required to launch ventures with a triple bottom line. I also gained systematic knowledge on taking ventures through the ideation phase. I used this entrepreneurial knowledge to construct the material taught in this workshop series.

Over the course of six weeks, teams were immersed in a series of practical workshops and team project activities. Through my unique blend of experience and knowledge gained from my degree, they developed a foundation of skills necessary for their entrepreneurial journey to developing a successful startup.

Some of the challenges of developing and piloting a new workshop series were the following:

1. Ensuring that the material was not redundant: One of my goals was to bring educational equity to FIPs. However, I did not want the material to be a simple copy-paste of the plethora of resources available through YouTube videos and other incubator programs around the city. I wanted to ensure that the material had a unique, practical method of being delivered. The practical workshop method of delivering theoretical entrepreneurial knowledge was a unique challenge.
2. Harnessing the existing internal and external networks of the Tamer Center's existing programs for FIPs.
3. Ensuring scalability and replication of the material for future iterations of the workshop series (if successful).
4. Creating accessible mentorship and growth opportunities for the teams to exit successfully from the workshop series.

   This pilot was a great success with Sandra and Hattie's support and encouragement. We had six teams present their ventures on Showcase Day! Four out of the six teams were awarded $10,000 each to develop their ventures further. I am fortunate that Sandra sees value in my ideas and has asked me to stay on and work part-time to

   1. ensure that each of these ventures creates and follows through on milestones for optimal success;
   2. continue to receive advice and mentorship throughout their venture development; and
   3. work on scaling and growing Startup Works.

      I will forever be grateful for this opportunity, for it has highlighted my purpose in life. I want to continue bringing resources and knowledge to marginalized communities, especially focusing on entrepreneurship. I also want to ensure the privileged venture capital world is accessible to marginalized entrepreneurs. My future goal is to pursue a PhD in impact measurement and entrepreneurship. I would like to return to the Tamer Center in the future to work full-time and dedicate my learnings to its various programs.