There are two beliefs entrepreneurship expert Jim Correll will cite immediately if asked. The first is that there should be a maker space in every rural community in the U.S. The second, he says, is that “Entrepreneurship is the best hope we’ve got, not only for small community economic survival and prosperity but I think worldwide.”
In the rural city of Independence, Kansas, population of around 9,000, Correll is the director of the Fab Lab at Independence Community College (ICC). One of about 500 such programs chartered by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Fab Lab ICC was the first of its kind in Kansas back in 2014.
The Fab Lab initiative is a global program that isn’t limited to but can be particularly impactful in rural regions. It combines access to tools and knowledge around technology and digital fabrication, with training in developing an…
