We’ve touched down in Amman and commenced our first
Al-Tareeq entrepreneurship and emotional intelligence program. The first day
brought with it a plethora of emotion, as we weren’t sure what to expect in
terms of engagement and attendance from the students. The class itself is
taking place in Zarqa, forty minutes outside of Amman. We arrived to a room
filled with 21 eager students, 14 girls and 7 boys. At the last minute, we decided
to translate the curriculum into Arabic to ensure our lessons resonate with the
students.
For the first hour we began with two engaging and active icebreakers
to help the students feel more comfortable around us and allow us to get to
know them. Once we got down to business, we were taken aback by how the
students responded to our material. They participated constantly, asking
questions, working together, and showing more and more confidence as they
presented ideas to their classmates. One 17 year-old student even speaks
Arabic, English, Japanese and is learning Chinese- how incredible!
After our icebreakers, we introduced some new concepts in
both English and Arabic and showed the students a case study on a local
problem. We asked them to form teams, identify the problem, brainstorm
solutions, and then complete a basic business model canvas sheet. While at
first we were hesitant to ask so much of them, the students surprised us with
their passion and dedication to the project. Their solutions were innovative
and original, and we were beyond impressed.
What our case study served to show is that nobody is born
with an entrepreneurial spirit; rather it is a mindset they can learn. It is a
specific set of behavioral tendencies that set entrepreneurs apart from others,
and our students started to realize that they themselves could have an impact
on their community through entrepreneurship. We want them to understand that
not every business needs to be venture capital-backed and that entrepreneurship
takes place in all levels of business, no matter how small.
Our first class was an overview of the entire course—the
next 9 days will be a more in-detail study of all the concepts we introduced on
day one. Day two will cover problem-solving skills and introduce idea
generation. Check back tomorrow to learn more about our students!