Creative problem solving builds entrepreneurial mindset

Abstract

This paper introduces how several hands-on activities fostering the development of creative thinking as a fundamental part of the youth's entrepreneurial mindset are used. Students in various disciplines from the Pennsylvania State University-Berks Campus served as mentors for a primarily middle-school and high-school group of students and teachers during the service-learning workshops conducted in the rural municipality of San Jose de Cusmapa, Nicaragua. After an introduction to creativity and creative problem solving, the participants were able to devise innovative ideas for the creation of a business for a product or service in their community. The feedback obtained from the participants evidences that the workshop was effective in teaching them how to develop and expand their entrepreneurial mindset through creativity and creative problem solving activities. In this paper, it is discussed how working individually and collectively to resolve a series of creative problem solving activities expanded the students' ideas throughout the different stages of the business creation process.