Lesson series

Youth Entrepreneurship x Design

Curriculum + resource sets for adults who want to help youth build the skills, mindsets, and creative confidence that are in-demand for dynamic careers of today and tomorrow. Flexible structure that can be used in a wide variety of settings, including classrooms, schools, out-of-school programs, and summer camps series.
What you are going to learn

A few more words about this course

Youth Entrepreneurship X Design is a curriculum designed to help students develop an
understanding of design thinking principles, entrepreneurship, and the power of innovation to change their world.

The YExD learning experience takes youth through an
immersive, active innovative experience that blends design thinking, social impact, leadership, and
entrepreneurship.

Students learn to frame their thinking around methods and mindsets of human-centered design
by exploring a challenge that matters to them, developing a prototype solution, completing a business model
canvas, preparing and delivering a pitch-like presentation to a panel of judges for feedback. YExD builds a young
person’s capacity for the skills, mindsets, and creative confidence that are in-demand for school, communities, and dynamic careers of today and tomorrow.
Outcomes for Students:

• Students will exhibit creative confidence by valuing diverse perspectives in approaching challenges, demonstrating an ability to learn from failure, and generating creative ideas
• Students will demonstrate design thinking methods and mindsets by building deep knowledge of a challenge, defining problems through an empathetic, human-centered perspective, enacting an action orientation and culture of prototyping and by being mindful of their process.
• Students will demonstrate their successful design development process by producing an actionable prototype and solution idea that aligns with their research and stakeholder needs.
• Students will exhibit entrepreneurial skills by developing an aligned business model canvas, delivering a compelling pitch presentation, incorporating feedback into their ongoing launch, and addressing adaptive and technical challenges within their solution idea.
• Students will exhibit specific critical thinking skills: problem identification, synthesis and analysis of ideas, making claims supported by data, creative ideation, and evaluation of entrepreneurial work.
• Students will demonstrate future-of-work skills: collaborative teamwork, project management, organization, resource allocation, communication, presentation, and active, self-directed learning.

Course contents

Instructors

Debi Parizek

Executive Director
Deborah Parizek drives HFLI’s efforts to provide workshops, programs and site coaching that pair effective education and human-centered design approaches, empowering learners to lead transformational change in, with and for their community. She is known for cultivating the conversations, empathy, and capacity critical to addressing complex challenges. Prior to joining HFLI in 2005, Deborah designed and directed extensive teacher leadership development programs for multiple school systems