Miami Dade College’s Idea Center Expands To Homestead Campus

When Alejandro D. González and Sissi Rodriguez began working at the Idea Center—Miami Dade College’s hub for entrepreneurship and innovation—in February of 2022, they wanted to grow the center’s reach.

In March, the duo helped the program, which initially launched in 2014 thanks to a $2.18 million grant from the Knight Foundation, expand to the West Campus. 

Now they are bringing their entrepreneurial mindset down south. 

The Homestead Campus, in collaboration with Blackstone LaunchPad, a charitable foundation that aims to close the entrepreneurship gap for minority students, launched the center’s third hub on Sept. 13.

“This is a community that is growing,” González said. “In the last 10 years, Homestead has grown by 30 percent in population. It’s a community where new development is happening everywhere. And we need to be here to be part of that growth.” 

Located on the third floor (Room C303) of the Student Success Center that was unveiled in August, it features nontraditional decor, including an orange velvet couch, mustard yellow ottomans, black high-top tables, a hexagon-patterned carpet, various houseplants and a green, abstract ceiling that creates a cozy atmosphere for students to collaborate.

Speakers, workshops, activities and pitch competitions will introduce students to the “mind of a business owner” and unique ways of analyzing and solving problems. 

Workshops will also be held to support small business owners from the Homestead community to build their companies and develop their ideas.

The Idea Center’s first event was a workshop hosted by Rodriguez to show students how to introduce themselves in a professional setting. Attendees developed an elevator pitch, a 30 second introduction that delivers their name, position, dreams and experience in a concise and presentable manner. 

Other events included a seminar for students to become comfortable with rejection, a design thinking workshop to equip staff problem-solving techniques, and an educational session for small business owners.

For nearly a decade, the Idea Center has mentored hundreds of students to develop startups and promote their business ideas. They’ve also hosted programming that includes artificial intelligence seminars, coding fests, drone training, finance workshops and a Venezuelan women’s entrepreneurs program.

Anabella Sardinas, the Idea Center’s program manager, looks forward to bringing similar events to the Homestead community to better serve its predominantly Black and Hispanic population. 

“Entrepreneurship can be seen as something that’s extremely out of their comfort zone, something that might not be safe, something that might not be accessible for them,” Sardinas said. “So just bringing the ideas here and giving them a different perspective of entrepreneurship and how the entrepreneurial mindset is something that can be instilled in anybody in any pathway of any community, anywhere is really special.”

For information about the Idea Center, contact Sardinas at (305) 237-5070 or at asardin3@mdc.edu.  

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