The Institute for International Studies in Education (IISE) in the University of Pittsburgh's School of Education has identified entrepreneurship as a key element in global and international education. Current discourse in international education emphasizes the importance of fostering learners’ entrepreneurship. Cultivating entrepreneurship is about developing an adaptable skill set for solving problems and scaling solutions. This is increasingly important for individual student’s global competence.
Entrepreneurship is a set of mentality, mindset, and perspective. In a pedagogical domain, entrepreneurship is considered an approach to teaching and learning as well. It is a key to develop, further and advance one’s skills that align with the development of technologies and innovation.
Veysel Gokbel, the IISE program coordinator, explains the redefined concept of entrepreneurship. “Entrepreneurship education is often misunderstood by people in the fields of Social Science and Education. Entrepreneurship is a training to develop 21th century skills and gain growth mindset in an experiential learning setting. From team building to pitching innovative solutions, students will be able to develop unique skills that will help them to survive in a constantly changing job market at the time of smart machines, computerization, and advanced digital technologies.”
Innovation and entrepreneurship have an increasing impact on our economies and societies as they are changing the way we work, think, and act.
Veysel has been an active advocate of entrepreneurship education, as well as a practitioner. Speaking from his own experience, he encourages students to take part in the entrepreneurship programs at Pitt or other similar institutions. “The Pitt Innovation Institute increasingly offers many experiential learning opportunities that every student can take to benefit from it. As a PhD candidate, I appreciate being an active participant in many of their entrepreneurship and innovation activities including Blast Furnace Startup Accelerator Program. Such experiences took me to many exciting directions. I highly encourage students to expose themselves to such entrepreneurial environment for a mentality change. They will thank me later.”
Veysel Gokbel is a Program Coordinator and responsible for the marketing and IT at IISE. He supports developing and implementing tech and digital projects at the institute. In addition to his works with IISE and Pitt, Veysel also runs his own startup company and serves as board member and consultant at different innovation and entrepreneurship organizations.
Veysel studied a Master’s in Higher Education Management and is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Administrative and Policy Studies at the University of Pittsburgh's School of Education.
He has diverse experiences in teaching, research, and leadership at the university and professional levels. His professional interests include entrepreneurship and innovation, startups, market research, data science, mentoring, learning outcomes, productivity, internationalization, higher education management, and comparative and international education.
If you would like to reach out to Veysel, he can be contacted at veg9@pitt.edu.