Noble Impact CEO Eric Wilson Featured in Little Rock Soiree
Our cousin site Little Rock Soiree has a good piece this month on Noble Impact CEO Eric Wilson.
Noble, of course, is the nonprofit that in partnership with the Clinton School works to "engage students at the intersection of public service and entrepreneurship."
With the beginning of the 2014-15 school year at Little Rock's eStem High, where the program officially is a part of the cirriculum, Noble launched the Vault internal incubator for its students.
The idea is to put students in a position to succeed, and then get out of the way.
Wilson told Soiree contributor Todd Traub that Noble wants to challenge students to make a problem-solving difference in their communities.
Again, here's the full story, but in the meantime, a sample:
Wilson notes a Gallup survey that shows a marked drop in student engagement from elementary school to high school. Noble Impact sets out to close the engagement gap.
“The answer is purpose,” Wilson says. “Students have to find purpose in order to find reason.”
In other words, giving students real-life problems to solve as opposed to feeding them knowledge for knowledge’s sake not only helps improve the community, it gives students practical skills and a “portfolio of experiences” that will help them in the job market.
“We say ‘Stop asking these kids what they want to be when they grow up. Start asking them what problems they want to solve,’ ” Wilson says.