Draper University of Heroes: School for Entrepreneurs

Todd-Crosland-entreprneurship-university-Draper-UniversityFounder of the successful venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Tim Draper, recently developed an entrepreneurship boarding school in Silicon Valley called Draper University of Heroes. As the education industry is changing due to increased technology, education developers must innovate to increase student achievement in the classroom. While multiple people told Tim that entrepreneurship cannot be taught, he tried to find a way to make this possible through education.

Tim thought that something was missing from his formal education: the ability to fail. In modern day education, students are rewarded by following directions and not making mistakes. In entrepreneurship, it is important to make mistakes so that you can learn from them and move forward.

Draper University will be a much freer institution where students are encouraged to take risks and learn from their mistakes. There will be no standard curriculums, as successful entrepreneurs will come to the classroom and speak towards their experiences and what allowed them to become successful. There will be no history taught, as the only focus is towards the future, so the first part of the program is called “future.”

The second part of the program is survival. This is both an urban and rural survival course that contains militaristic aspects and potential mental anguish. There will be a lot of activities coming at you at a fast pace that will come together in a two-minute presentation to a panel of venture capitalists.

Draper University is a completely different form of schooling that most professors would not agree with. The students learn by doing and creating their own failures. This sort of shake up and real life training to suppose to stir up the students creativity and force them to do rather than to analytically think about every possible outcome. Businesses become successful by entrepreneurs actually making and running their businesses rather than trying to perfect it in the beginning stages. When a business makes a mistake, the entrepreneur will find a way to adjust and move forward. This is what Draper University stands for, and hopefully successful entrepreneurs will come out of the program.