Teaching Philosophy and Approach

I desire to equip students with the skills and knowledge to be resourceful and thoughtful contributors to society. This philosophy is largely informed by my belief that students ought to be taught not to regurgitate facts but to engage with concepts, question assumptions, and formulate thoughtful opinions, suggesting they be entrepreneurial about their education. To implement such a charge and to reach students with a variety of personalities, skill sets, backgrounds, and interests, I use a combination of materials (e.g., textbooks, academic articles, media articles, blog posts, podcasts, etc.), in-class exercises and illustrations, group and individual projects, and guest speakers. My methods use my communication skills and enthusiasm for current cultural trends to encourage problem solving, synthesizing, innovative techniques, and connecting classroom lessons to real-life situations.

Having been the recipient of wonderful mentorship, I care deeply for the role mentorship plays both inside and outside the classroom and recognize that learning opportunities present themselves in a variety of ways, whether that be through topics of customer acquisition and entrepreneurial finance or professional attire and early job mistakes. I have mentored students through formalized research assistantships as well as informal relationships with doctoral students.

Teaching Experience 

I have taught and developed curricula in myriad settings— standalone, independent courses; online-only and online-integrated courses; small group seminars; and in international locations. At TCU I taught Survey of Entrepreneurship to business minors at the Neeley School of Business and Entrepreneurial Opportunity Recognition to business majors. I rely heavily on real-life scenarios to spur discussion and critical-thinking and engage students. For example, I used the movie Chef to explore how entrepreneurial ideas play out in our culture, developing students’ ability to see entrepreneurship in new ways both in and out of the classroom. Similarly, I have relied on podcast episodes to further discussions regarding what makes a viable business idea and recognizing human-centered problems.

The university setting is an ideal environment for students to fail. Not only are they less likely to have contributed significant resources toward their ideas, they also have a unique support network available (e.g., mentorship, entrepreneurial centers and institutes, tenure-track professors and professors of practice, etc.).  My students are given many opportunities to put their skills into practice without every instance tied to the gradebook so they can celebrate their spectacular flops as a necessary part of the learning process. I like to give feedback in different ways—audio and written, real-time and delayed—in order to reach all students and provide them with multiple opportunities to digest suggestions both from me, their instructor, and from their fellow classmates.