HISTORY
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Reach for the Stars!
A kid designed card from the KidVentures entrepreneurial program |
 KidVentures was founded in 1999 by entrepreneur and designer Alice Horn, as a pilot project at Ludlam
Elementary School in South Miami. Students formed a business, designed a logo and a product line of
greeting cards. After successfully marketing their products at school, they sold their cards at local banks, malls and corporations. Students responded well! Attendance went up, attitudes changed, and other students wanted to join the program. As a result of this success, KidVentures was incorporated as a 501(c)(3) in order to pursue expansion.
KidVentures has since grown to serve students in South Miami, Overtown and Liberty City . We bring hands-on entrepreneurship education and financial literacy skills to economically isolated youth in grades 5-8. With the help and support of some of Miami ’s leading corporations, over 45 classroom business programs have been delivered at eight schools and nonprofits, exposing more than 900 students to running a business. Program profits (over $12,000 to date) go back to the community and support a worthy cause.
We are delighted to announce that KidVentures has joined forces with the international profit National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship - NFTE, pronounced "nifty." Working together in the same office, we now have the ability to reach a dramatically expended group of young people in middle school through high school.
KidVentures students run a real-life business, marketing artistic products they create. Students are
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Children learn how to talk to customers in a business-like manner. |
exposed to a wide range of skills including: product costing, advertising, business etiquette, and accurate record keeping. As part of the program, children participate in KidVentures Business Expos at corporate
partner locations including Carnival Cruise Lines, The City of Miami and the South Florida Educational Credit Union. These KidVentures Business Expos allow them to market and sell their kid-designed products to actual customers. They receive a sense of what it takes to succeed as a business owner and have a solid introduction to economic empowerment. KidVentures’ overall strategic plan and goal is to expand program delivery and reach a broader population of students in economically isolated areas of Miami-Dade County,Florida.
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