GCASE Global Scholars Program
An exciting non-profit program created by the Global Entrepreneurship Institute. It’s the world’s first online incubator program for global entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs, fired by their dreams and passions, have been the engine for creating new jobs, generating revenue, advancing innovation, enhancing productivity, and improving business models and processes. Entrepreneurship is the cornerstone of the free enterprise system around the world. In fact more than 500 million adults around the globe are engaged in some form of entrepreneurial activity each year. A global entrepreneur systematically seeks out and conducts new and innovative business activities across national borders. These activities may consist of exporting, licensing, opening a new sales office, or acquiring another venture.
Our Mission
Educating and supporting global entrepreneurs using innovative online technologies and resources.
Learn Local > Share Global
Our Objectives – Innovative Virtual Learning Environment
– Online Learning, through structured Online Courses, Online Workshops and Seminars
– Online Mentoring with “office hours” in Online Board Meetings and Online Presentations
– Online Networking Forums, Member-only events, and partner-sponsored Online Events
– Online Learning Center, resources, templates, spreadsheets, other important documents
– Online Workspace where entrepreneurs and scholars from all parts of the world can collaborate online, share files and important documents in a private workspace
Our Name – GCASE
Global Community for Advancing Studies on Entrepreneurship
Our Vision
We believe it is possible to empower entrepreneurs with a roadmap and support that guides them through the transition from start-ups, to micro-enterprises, and on to small and medium-sized businesses that create jobs, lead innovation, and increase economic development in their local communities.
Our Unique Services
We are connecting aspiring entrepreneurs around the world to valuable educational resources and support in an innovative virtual learning environment that bridges the gap between an entrepreneur’s dreams and action!
Problem – Need For Social Change
Many of today’s academic institutions are failing tomorrow’s entrepreneurs. There are a large number of academic institutions “teaching” entrepreneurship. But once a student completes a class, or a workshop, there is little or no support, and no forms of continuing education. And the high costs at an academic institution leave far too many behind.
– Schools and universities in many countries stick to outdated curricula, equipping students with skills that the private sector (real-world) can no longer utilize.
– Academic institutions are focused too much on teaching theory rather than practical applications of ideas and concepts, and there is a lack of participation of business in higher education.
– Young student-entrepreneurs find it difficult to start a business because they have never been exposed to the practical experience of developing new products, launching new ideas, maintaining financial records, or raising money from private investors and partners.
– Academic institutions teach them about how things ought to work, but then students find that the reality is quite different and need additional help they can’t find at their academic institutions.
Opportunity – Creatively Teaching Entrepreneurship
Student-entrepreneurs are empowered by creative assignments, application of course materials to real-life experiences, and creative infusion of resources like guest lectures, travel courses, and videos. In the knowledge economy of the modern world, the old model of the instructor-led lecture in a “bricks and mortar” classroom will not be adequate for tomorrow’s entrepreneurs. The opportunity for changing the status quo is here and now. According to research by the World Bank, the competencies most valued in our global economy are: teamwork, problem-solving, and motivation for lifelong learning. But these skills and dispositions “cannot be acquired in a learning setting in which teachers dictate facts to learners who seek to learn them only in order to be able to repeat them.”
Solution – Cloud Collaboration Designed for the Global Entrepreneur
Our innovative program is valuable for entrepreneurs who don’t have the access to expensive educational programs and business advisors. Scholars have 24/7 online access to a private workspace where they can visit and work one-on-one with other Scholars and Mentors from all over the world. Scholars have access to structured educational content and lesson plans that focus on the most important business drivers to entrepreneurial success. They can attend and participate in live online courses, listen to special guest lectures. They can study from our Online Learning Center. They can review video recordings of previous lectures and live online events.
Unique Program Design – Learn Local > Share Global
The Silicon Valley Business Model is creating some of the most successful businesses in the world today. The master entrepreneurs behind these companies have helped inspire and transform an entire generation around the world. Our program brings the knowledge base and support from Silicon Valley to entrepreneurs and educators around the world via innovative Web-based technologies and educational services. Our program can provide millions of people around the world a chance to study business and entrepreneurship. We target people who can’t afford a traditional college education or who do not have the flexibility to enroll in a full calendar of coursework. We help recent graduates, and we can even help even dropouts, discouraged students, who have fallen behind and now have a second chance to catch up and learn how to be a productive and successful entrepreneur.
Eligibility
Our program recognizes students who have excelled in their studies and have an ambition to develop a new global business venture, or understand in detail how to help support entrepreneurial activities in their local countries. Our program honors students whose broad interests help them excel academically. We accept students whose majors and minors are from widely separated fields of study. We support them to apply their learning to real-world entrepreneurial activities. Each year we select students from around the world to receive a scholarship to our GCASE Online Incubator Program.
Our program is open to every student on Earth between the ages of 18-35 at the time of application. Current students at academic, university-based educational programs are encouraged to apply. We will also accept applications from students who have been accepted to a university-based educational program, have not started attending classes, but will start classes within one year. We will also accept applications from students who have recently graduated from a university-based educational program within one year. The official language is English. Scholars can access the Online Incubator Program using the following languages: English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German. The Scholar should have access to the Internet to ensure full participation.
Activities and Deliverables
GCASE Global Scholars will be working in our exclusive Online Incubator Program researching and sharing ideas about entrepreneurial studies. The intense research program will last for one year from the date of commencement.
Scholars will be attending online, live, interactive courses and online guest lectures from leading experts.
Scholars will be expected to prepare a white paper on one of the three broad themes of entrepreneurial capitalism:
– financing entrepreneurial endeavors
– managing ethics in new business venturing
– economic development supporting the entrepreneurial ecosystem
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Overview of Curriculum
Provides a real-world introduction to the process of financing entrepreneurial ventures and the functions of the major venture capitalists. The scholars will have regular online guest lecturers and interviews. These will be scheduled with a variety of firms including venture capitalists, investment banks, professional service providers, and master entrepreneurs. The program will also feature a series of online assignments and a white paper.
Course Objectives
– First, students will learn about the importance of Silicon Valley to entrepreneurial capitalism. For the past fifty years Silicon Valley has been the world center for venture capital, technology investment, and innovation. The Silicon Valley “model” of financing deals and supporting entrepreneurial capitalism is widely used around the world. Getting a business plan funded by a venture capitalist is an “eyeball-to-eyeball” process. This travel course will provide scholars a chance to learn about the world of financing entrepreneurial ventures through the eyes of Silicon Valley’s visionary venture capitalists, leading professional service providers and master entrepreneurs.
– Second, this course teaches students how to become better prepared entrepreneurs by focusing on the “venture drill process” which consists of: packaging (preparing a business plan); placing (finding the best venture capitalist for the deal and getting introduced); and presenting (face-to-face discussions with a venture capitalist.) It is preferred that the students have a prepared business plan or presentation before making the trip. In this course students will have the opportunity stress test their ideas, and/or refresh a business plan, update presentation slides, business modeling, and financial modeling. The venture capital world is a highly networked industry. Students will have the opportunity to build viable contacts with venture capitalists, professional service providers, and master entrepreneurs.
– Third, students will review entrepreneurship and ethics. Learn how to manage ethical challenges of launching and growing an entrepreneurial venture in the 21st Century. Students will learn how to create value, act honestly, and deal by mutual consent. Presents a framework for thinking about and acting on business ethics. Students will learn how to evaluate the available evidence, identify what is important, and learn how to recognize what is ethical and how to act accordingly. Students will be exposed to tools that can help them identify and explain the principles that support an ethical basis for supporting capitalism in the global market.
Content Major Study Units
– Discuss the evolution of the venture capital industry from France to Silicon Valley
– Explain the economic impact of venture capitalists and their investments in America
– Review how the venture capital industry functions
– Review the venture drill process: packaging, placing and presenting a deal to a venture capitalist
– Explain how to negotiate with investors and how to manage the deal process at the “deal table” through mutual consent
– Describe and review why entrepreneurs fail in securing funding (lying, dishonesty, and unethical business practices)
– Explain the importance of delivering the business-building and value promised beyond the closing of the deal
– Learn how to manage ethical challenges of launching and growing an entrepreneurial venture in the 21st Century
Instructional Strategies
This travel course is built around a series of online meetings, interviews, and in-class lectures that will cover the major study units. The pedagogical approach is modeled much like a “road show” which is a common practice for an entrepreneur presenting before venture capitalists in a series of personal visits and presentations. Acting in real-time, after each visit, students will quickly learn how to capture (journalize), and incorporate, learning events.
– It is expected that students will also learn from each other through a highly interactive environment that emphasizes class participation (both questions and comments).
– Analytical and critical thinking activities are emphasized throughout the course, as students will identify the need to review and update their journal with their experiential learning from the visits.
– The online lectures will emphasize the application of the concepts and problem solving for the financial issues an entrepreneur faces today. Although the lectures take a major part of the program, the Socratic method of teaching is followed fostering questions and dialogue with the students.
Methods of Evaluation
The majority of this course is taught using the case method process (exploring “realworld” case studies and examples). During the program each student will be required to record, and document the learning process (journalize) in a field journal. The students will be encouraged to journalize in real-time during the guest lectures and field interviews conducted locally. Students are required to complete a comprehensive white paper based on their field journal, observations made during the online courses, interviews, and class lectures. Students are also required to work and to actively participate in our online classroom.
Certificate of Completion
Scholars who successfully complete the one year program will be eligible for a Certificate in Global Entrepreneurship.
We are a non-profit educational organization and we take no equity. Our members receive educational resources and support to work on their start-ups for zero cost. Any new business ventures, any new products developed, or any other work product done through our Online Incubator Program belongs completely to the creators. We do not take ownership of any intellectual property created by our members, nor does our supporters. We are focused on the global good what good entrepreneurs can create. We encourage donations from the entrepreneurs we have helped, and we appreciate any additional community support. With this said, we are very selective with the entrepreneurs we choose.