The Challenge

Entrepreneurship encompasses a wide range of activities - from solopreneurship to side-hustles to franchises to brick and mortar storefronts to system-changing ideas to venture-backed scalable companies. Whatever the form, entrepreneurship requires you to tell a compelling story, to put yourself out there, be vulnerable, build relationships and connect to content in new ways.

Tell a 5 minute story that makes a connection between entrepreneurship - and you. Five students will be chosen to tell their story at a live storytelling event. Like all good stories, these stories should be personally meaningful, authentic, include a storyline, develop a character(s), involve tension/action/conflict and find some semblance of resolution based on the student’s life, learning, and ideas.

Stories will be presented LIVE, via Zoom, to an audience of friends and allies. Members of the audience will select the winning story! The winning story will go on to be featured in The Silicon Florist, and may have a chance to present on stage at the annual OEN Awards celebration.

Examples of story topics may include:

• Your own entrepreneurial concept/venture/business

• What you’re learning about entrepreneurship

• An entrepreneurial fail

• Your own story of resilience and how you will draw on this resilience to set you up for entrepreneurial success

• A family connection with entrepreneurship

• An entrepreneurial story that inspires you

• A story about how you see entrepreneurship changing the world

• Money and entrepreneurship - there are always stories to be told about money

As a storyteller (NOTE: CALL FOR STORYTELLERS IS CLOSED FOR 2021)
Contact your entrepreneurship instructor or coordinator from the list below* and tell them:
"I want to participate in the Entrepreneurship Storytelling Challenge!"

Abby Chroman
Abigail Sarmac & Amelia Pape
Heidi Sickert
Himalaya Rao-Potlapally
Juan Barraza
Meredith Goddard
Tichelle Sorensen

If your instructor or coordinator is not listed, or if you are participating independently, please contact Abby Chroman at achroman@pdx.edu

Program coordinators and instructors will select storytellers. They will base their selection on the number of students interested, and will hold a semi-finals event in the case that more students are interested than we can accomodate.

Guidelines for Stories

• under 5 minutes

• personally meaningful

• authentic

• include a storyline

• develop a character(s)

• involve tension/action/conflict

• reveals some semblance of resolution based on the student’s life, learning, and ideas

At the conclusion of the live storytelling event, the audience members will vote to select the winning story. They will use the following rubric.

Delivery

• Attention-getting start

• Scripted, not impromptu

• Organized and clear

• Effective use of voice - volume, pacing, inflection

• Follows the storytelling format - not a traditional pitch

• Shows a willingness to “put yourself out there”

• Poised and shows evidence of practice

• 5 minutes
  

Content

• Authentic content that speaks to your own life story

• Makes connections (entrepreneurship, your life, others, the world, etc.)

• Draws on entrepreneurial ideas/content from the course

• Attempts to connect to the audience

• Engaging - follows a narrative format

• Creative

• Uses specific ideas, evidence, and examples

• Doesn’t focus on general ideas or cliches

• Concludes with a resolution, insight, synthesis, learning, or reflection