Lessons from a Pasture Classroom: Barry Striegel at TEDxGrandForks

Ranchers build fences to manage a herd, but some cows purposely teach their calves how to get at the greener grass on the other side. What about the verbal, physical, and cultural fences we build around kids that limit their aspirations? Entrepreneurial thinking enables youth to hurdle those fences and break from the herd.

Barry Striegel is the founding director of the North Dakota Youth Entrepreneurship Education Program, an organization dedicated to encouraging North Dakota youth to consider business ownership as a real career option and community leadership as a rewarding outlet for their natural creativity. Young entrepreneurs in communities across North Dakota experience what it's like to run their own town and start their own businesses by attending summer camps aimed to increase the level of academic performance, entrepreneurial thinking, career aspirations, civic participation, and personal resilience of elementary and middle school students.

Barry is also a nationally-certified entrepreneurship educator and a classroom teacher with more than 25 years of experience.

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)