Knott County to gain from Berea program

By SHARON K. HALL
By the end of an hour long Knott County Chamber meeting, business and organization representatives learned how a partnership between Knott County and Berea College summer entrepreneurship program could benefit the county ’s economical growth.

Berea College has played an important role in turning out entrepreneurs in the Appalachian area for years. For more than a decade Berea College has offered entrepreneurial  internships as part of its business education’s summer program. The purpose of the internships is to provide students with the opportunity to apply their learning in a way that assists businesses in the Appalachia region. Strategic planning in the early 2000’s concluded small entrepreneurial businesses was a likely way to build an economic base for the future of Appalachian communities.

The need to expand and support entrepreneurial activity as a means for revitalizing Appalachian communities led to the creation of Berea College’s Entrepreneurship for the Public Good (EPG) program. Dr. Peter H. Hackbert, Co-Director, Entrepreneurship for the Public Good; Berea Professor of General Studies, joined the college in 2007. As a teacher, scholar, public speaker, social and civic entrepreneur and consultant, the professor is a nationally recognized expert in entrepreneurship education.

The entrepreneur expert and 20 selected Berea students of diverse backgrounds and majors made initial studies of Hindman and Knott County. They recognized the importance of growth companies and new product or service development with a focus on adventure tourism, artisan sector, sustainability and ecology, and entrepreneurship.

Dr. Hackbert and some of his students visited Knott County earlier and worked with groups such as the Knott County Tourism Commission. “I was really blown away with the Sportsplex,” said Hackbert. In addition to the Sportsplex, the professor made positive comments on the ATV training facility, the arts and crafts sector, and the ecological area.

Dr. Hackbert used role-playing May 21 to explain his EPG program to the Knott County Chamber of Commerce. By the end of the Chamber gathering, Hackbert’s “theatre” raised the excitement of everyone. It seemed no one left Hindman City Hall last Thursday without supporting Hackbert and his students return this summer.

Keith Steele (left), publisher of Acclaim Press, participates in an exercise held by Dr. Hackbert (center) of Berea College in Thursday’s  Chamber of Commerce meeting. Also pictured is Chamber president Shelley Amburgey. (Photo by Jordan Hall)

The professor gave individuals scripts that put them in the role of entrepreneurs with a concept and they presented them to make-believe business people in hopes that they would fund the project.

Presenters were Keith Steele, Publisher of Acclaim Press who is working with the Times on the Knott County Pictorial Book, James Justice of Nationwide Insurance, and Bernice Amburgey, Regional Manager US Corps. of Engineers. After the presentations, presenter judges Kim Eldridge of Hospice of the Bluegrass and Shelly Amburgey, Chamber president, voted on the strength of the presentation based on a scale of 1 to 10. The judges voted as the professor had predicted: the presentation scripts were given in order of weakest to strongest and the Chamber judges vote reflected lower to higher scores.

Dr. Hackbert said, “We want to partner with you but the scripts won’t be here. We don’t have predetermined  [plans] to embed in the community but we are a discovery process. We will be able to find people in the community to make plans happen.”