"At-Risk Kids Given a Chance" The Miami Herald, by D.E. Leger, April 16, 2004
TEACHING BUSINESS SKILLS TO LOW-INCOME STUDENTS
MAKES DOLLARS AND SENSE, EDUCATORS FIND
Alex Mercado made $2 in his first business venture, selling key chains. But low revenue didn't deter the 13-year-old from starting another business with partners from his Jose de Diego Middle School in Overtown.
This time, the partners will be selling mugs. Alex knows that entrepreneurs need to be optimistic. "With the mugs, we'll do better than last year," he said. "they're bigger than keychains. People should be more attracted to them."
Today, he'll learn if he's right.
His company, Old S-kool Ventures, and two ther small businesses, Creative Hands, from the Charles R. Drew Middle School in Liberty City, and Bookmark Buddies, from the South Miami Elementary School, will get a chance to showcase their products at the KidVentures Business Expo at the South Florida Educational Credit Union in Miami.
The students will have for sale custom-designed coffee mugs, business cards and bookmarks produced by companies they founded in after-school programs designed by KidVentures, a Coral Gables non-profit that focuses on at-risk students from grades five through eight.
KidVentures teaches the students to think and conduct themselves like entrepreneurs.
During weekly 90-minute sessions, they are taught the details of creating and running a business, including making a presentation, managing money, developing a product and marketing it.
The KidVentures' sales event was sponsored by the South Florida Educational Credit Union, and funded by the Peacock Foundation, the Jim Moran Foundation, the Ethel and W. George Kennedy Foundation and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
The kids don't get to keep their profits.
"At the end of the semester, they hold a profit-donation ceremony," KidVentures Executive Director Alice Horn said. "This year, the profits will go to help injured manatees at the Seaquarium."
Tomasina O'Donnell, the principal at Jose de Diego, sees the program as a boon for the 240 kid participants.
"We have a lot of kids from tough situations who come here," she said. "Some kids live in homeless shelters. Any type of exposure to business ideas like this is a good thing. We could have a future Bill Gates in here."
While KidVentures holds its 15 weekly sessions after school, in-class entrepreneurship programs are taking root throughout the region.
The National Foundation For Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE), for example, offers 1.5 hour workshops two to three days a week during regular school hours at 10 South Florida schools, including Miami Senior High, Hialeah-Miami Lakes Senior High and Fort Lauderdale High.
Steve Mariotti, founder and president of NFTE, a 17-year old New York-based group that teaches the basics of entrepreneurship to low-income students, called the growth in South Florida part of a national trend.
He noted that NFTE, which offers programs in 12 countries, works with 20,000 students in 300 schools.
"The landscape for these programs is booming," said Mariotti, adding that there's a greater interest now in the study of entrepreneurship than at any other point in the nearly 20 years since he founded NFTE.
He credits the growing interest among educators and parents to a cultural shift.
"This year's been the best year ever, thanks to shows like The Apprentice," he said. "Youth entrepreneurship has become a teaching strategy on a worldwide basis for low-income youth. It's booming in China, India and Europe."
In South Florida, some programs are funded by the state, others through the Morgan Stanley Foundation.
There were only six in-school programs in South Florida just two years ago, said Vivian Garcia-Tunon, NFTE program coordinator. She credits the growth to an increase in funding from Morgan Stanley and from the federal government.
"In the school year beginning in fall 2004, we hope to get into 20 schools," she said.
Lisa Altema, 11, a partner in Old S-kool Ventures, recalled how her mother wanted her to be a banker and she at first wanted to become a doctor.
Now she just might become a businesswoman.
"I like business because you get to write and draw and see your design," she said. "I also like the making-money part."
