In 2021 I participated as a Change Agent Fellow in the Black Girl Ventures Fellowship (https://www.blackgirlventures.org/post/leadership-with-a-conscience-meet-our-newest-change-agent-fellows)
At the time, I was operating Precious Plastic Cincy as a for-profit and the fellowship was a great opportunity to meet other like minded individuals and get some support for the work that I was doing.
Over the course of the fellowship, l learned with my cohort more about building entrepreneurial ecosystem and we brainstormed and dreamed about what we wanted that ecosystem to look like for ourselves.
I liked that we worked on a project based initiative. We were all planning towards a pitch competition that we planned the logistics for. Because of this, I felt more connected to the other Change Agents in the fellowship and felt like a got a true sense of their working styles. All cohorts and fellowships should have some sort of project based initiative to encourage a cohesive experience for the participants.
Overall, it was a good experience because of everything that I learned in the process including learning more about the start up space. I learned more about what supporting an entrepreneurial community looked like and the effort needed. This has inspired some of my future work and led me to my current role in supporting startups at Valley Folk Studios.
Cyrina