Nursing Portfolio
Entrepreneurship:
HRNS301: Monarch Think Tank
The Monarch Think Tank is a course open to all disciplines that brings students together to collaborate with each other, faculty and community members as they design project based solutions to societal issues. While the topic varies each year, the year I participated the theme was "social entrepreneurship". Our faculty member, Dr. Connie Merriman assisted us in analyzing our topic through in-depth classroom and field research, and then turning that research into real world implementation.
This was a unique course that I was grateful to be able to be a part of at Old Dominion University. For this course, we worked in small groups with a non profit of our choice to help them either become more self sufficient, implement a new service, or improve a process they already in had place. To do so, we spoke with organizers of the organization, completed feasibility analysis and SWOT analysis, completed and submitted a charter, and provided them with a strategic plan to achieve their goals.
The Non Profit we chose was Bags of Hope. Bags of Hope provides clothing and comfort items to children that are pulled from their home and placed in foster care, often carrying what little belongings they own in a black trash bag. The mission of Bags of Hope is to provide children with clothes that are theirs and fitted, as well as a toy or stuffed animal to provide comfort. They provide these items in things such as backpacks and duffel bags which they collect through donations. What they were interested in our help was getting a store front to allow the children to "shop" for clothes that are in their style and size after being placed in foster care.
To help with this, we did a feasibility analysis, to which we determined her wants & needs were feasible. You can see that below:
After conducting our feasibility analysis, we performed a SWOT analysis. SWOT stands for strenghts, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. We performed this on our plan we had to help her find a store front and expand the non profit. SWOT Analysis can be used to make the most of what you've got, to your organization's best advantage, as well as reduce the chances of failure, by understanding what you're lacking, and eliminating hazards that would otherwise catch you unaware. You can see to the right what we came up with on our SWOT analysis.
The last piece of this project and course was creating a strategic plan for Bags of Hope. In our strategic plan, we included a background on the organization, the previous completed SWOT analysis and a unique value proposition.
We then created plans for marketing and communication as well as objectives for the year with deadlines. The last part is an action plan with ways we will achieve our objectives stating when to start each and when each should be completed by.
I am sad to report a couple months after presenting this to the Bags of Hope chair, Lisa Mckenzie, due to some personal issues she had to step back from the non profit and I do not believe she has picked it back up to this day.
We then submitted a project charter to Enactus. Enactus stands for Entrepreneurship, Action, & US - the students, academic, and business leaders. They are an experiential learning platform that develops leaders with a head for business and a heart for the world. Through them, we could have had the opportunity to get funding and present our work at a national and international level. The project charter consists of a sustainability assessment, livelihood analysis and project scope and can be seen to the left.
Below I highlight some important skills that this course has prepared me with.
Hover over each skill to find out more!
Working In A Team Setting
All of this work was done in a team of students working closely with the head of the organization. The 4 of us worked together to brainstorm needs of hers and come up with a plan together that can be implemented to address her needs.
Make Decisions & Problem Solving
In the beginning of the semester Lisa brought us a problem and we used critical thinking and problem solving skills to determine the best solution for her problem and a feasible way help her implement it .
Plan, Organize & Prioritize Work
Through this course we worked to organize and plan a strategy for Lisa to make her dream a reality with objectives and goals that all had realistic deadlines and were achievable.
Future Goal Development
This course has given me insight into different aspects of running business and how non profits operate. The most important skill I gained through this course was the different type of feasibility analysis's. One day I hope to open my own primary care nursing practice as nurse practitioner and the skills I gained through implementing this for Bags of Hope have created a solid foundation of knowledge for me to expand upon in my future endeavors.