Reedley College instructor, Eric Nasalroad, sees the Central Valley as the perfect place for locally owned businesses to thrive.

As a member of a new entrepreneurial project, Entrepreneurial Pathways, Nasalroad hopes to educate up-and-coming business owners on how to succeed in the Valley.

Entrepreneurial Pathways is a collaboration between Central California high schools, community colleges, and California State University, Fresno. Community college members include Reedley College, Fresno City College, College of the Sequoias, Columbia College and Porterville College. The project is funded by the Chicago-based Coleman Foundation.

The purpose of the three-year project is to get entrepreneur educators to teach future business owners the same set of skills. The project is being coordinated through California State University, Fresno, and involves the university’s entrepreneurship center, the Lyles Center. “The whole idea behind the project is to develop the economy of the Central Valley through entrepreneurship,” said Nasalroad. “The Central Valley is perfect for entrepreneurship because of its diversity, both cultural and economic. This diversity results in a wide variety of consumer needs for business owners to tap into.”

Another goal of the project is to align school curriculum and articulation throughout the Valley. Eventually, high school students will get credit for entrepreneurship classes taken in high school at Reedley College or another community college in the project, and then go on to receive credit at California State University, Fresno, for classes taken at community college.

Nasalroad, who earned a master’s degree in entrepreneurship from the Craig School of Business at California State University, Fresno in 2005, said, “young entrepreneurs need basic skills to create their own businesses, the tools to manage those businesses, and knowledge about the resources available to them.”

Each community college in the project is required to establish an entrepreneurship club that will be affiliated with the College Entrepreneurship Organization (CEO), a national entrepreneurship club. Nasalroad said Reedley College’s club will begin taking members as soon as fall 2008.

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