March 11 saw the second session of Opportunity Corps, UNeTech Institute and Bio Nebraska’s professional development, entrepreneurship, and mentorship program for women in STEAM.

A screenshot of our participants in the virtual Session 2 of Opportunity Corps

Funded by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, Opportunity Corps is a ten-month program that will cover a wide array of topics related to starting and leading a business and will feature subject matter experts and entrepreneurs from academia and the STEAM community.

The second session featured morning educational programming from UNeTech’s Innovation Development Strategist Dr. Jace Gatzemeyer on business models and customer discovery. Participants used interactive tools to explore the use of the business model canvas as a method of determining strategic actions for customer discovery. Example business AirBNB was used to work through the model, and cohort members then created their own businesses.

A screenshot of our participants in the virtual Session 2 of Opportunity Corps

In the afternoon session, a panel of women industry leaders spoke to the cohort about customer discovery. The panel was led by NUtech Ventures entrepreneurship program manager Joy Eakin who encouraged panelists to share their experiences with customer discovery. Panelists included: founder of Omaha Under the Radar Amanda DeBoer Bartlett;  local entrepreneur Dr. Razia Aziz-Seible; and I-Corps graduate Taya Moheiser.

Next, Ameshia Doll-Weier shared a presentation entitled “Micro-Mentoring: Anyone Can Do It” that discussed her career journey and the many people who mentored her along her path in both big and small ways.

Session three will be held on April 8 and will cover value propositions.

 For more information about Opportunity Corps, visit opportunitycorpsne.org.