Are people surprised to learn that Iowa has career opportunities in high technology?
I always hear that Iowa is kind of the manufacturing and farming environment, but it seems to me like there’s a lot of high technology as well. In the past, the state has focused its economic development effort on trying to lure companies to Iowa. I’m really glad that the state is also proactively encouraging entrepreneurial activity as an avenue towards job creation. That excites me because that’s what I’ve seen with my experience. Bob Parsons started a company here and created thousands of jobs. What is the University’s role in fostering entrepreneurship? What we’re focusing on at JPEC is education for all Iowans. We offer camps and teacher training programs for students as young as the fourth grade. We’re really trying to change the entrepreneurial mindset. I knew people through my career who were raised in Silicon Valley and grew up knowing a lot of entrepreneurs. Iowa kids don’t grow up necessarily knowing a lot of entrepreneurs. Their parents may have worked at a large company th
