Beyond the Lemonade Stand: Involving Your Community in Entrepreneurship Education

1. Beyond the Lemonade Stand:Involving Your Community in Entrepreneurship Education November 4, 2007 Presenters: Malinda Todd and Leslie Scott

2. 3,600+ of North Carolina students take Small Business/ Entrepreneurship 2,000+ Students take REAL Entrepreneurship Courses 10,000+ Participate in 4-H Entrepreneurship/Economic Programs 80,000+ Student impacted by Junior Achievement Number reached by entrepreneurship programs Around 100,000 Number of North Carolinians under the age of 19 2,410,000 Entrepreneurship Education- Who is it Reaching in North Carolina?

3. Challenges to Entrepreneurship Education • Testing • Entrepreneurship often discounted as vocational training • Classroom structure not set up for hands-on learning

4. Don’t Wait for the World to Change Change it Yourself

5. Create a Team Think of people in your community that are interested in youth entrepreneurship. Some possibilities include: • Teachers • Young People • Chamber of Commerce Members • Small Business Owners • Small Business Service Providers (SBDCs, Incubators) • Members of Service Organizations

6. Burke County- Youth a Priority • Created a team to build entrepreneurship development • Team included local chambers, local governments, economic development office, community college. • Held workshops throughout the county • Encouraged teachers and community organizations to learn how to teach entrepreneurship • Brings local business owners and business support providers into the classroom

7. Assess Your Community • Knowing what exist in your community gives you a good starting point • Involve a wide-range of people in the assessment– school teachers, church representatives, after school programs, community colleges • Think strategically about all age groups • Think about the number of students reached

8. Energizing Entrepreneurship- A Model • The energizing Entrepreneurship for Rural America is a national curriculum that North Carolina has used to inspire locally based entrepreneurship development strategies • Communities send diverse teams to the three-four day workshop • Teams leave the workshop with a strategy to build entrepreneurship in their communities

9. Programs That You May Have and Just Didn’t Know It. • 4-H– Offers programs in entrepreneurship, economics, and financial literacy • Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts both offer badges in entrepreneurship and business • Junior Achievement • REAL (Rural Entrepreneurship through Action Learning) there are programs in several states • DECCA and FBLA- Programs that teach business and marketing in the high schools

10. Support Current Programs • Put together community support teams with people knowledgeable about small businesses to provide advice and to small business • Match business mentors to young people or to teachers • Provide materials to classes that are teaching entrepreneurship • Help plan and raise funds for field trips to small businesses

11. Encourage Local Organizations to Implement Entrepreneurship Programs • Approach the local school system- Superintendent, business and marketing teachers, board of education • Approach local organizations that can access existing curriculum- boy scouts, 4-H • Approach organizations that have the capacity to add new entrepreneurship programs– community colleges, after school programs, community development corporations

12. Be Entrepreneurial– Start Your Own Program! • Partner with local organizations if possible • Good partners should either work with youth or be involved in entrepreneurship (or both) • Possible partners include • Summer camps • Universities • Workforce Development youth councils • Churches • Councils of Government • Community Development Groups

13. Tap into Existing Curricula • Many organizations offer curricula and facilitator training for entrepreneurship • NC REAL • NFTE • Kauffman • More at www.entre-ed.org

14. Tyrrell County– Teaching Entrepreneurship and Conservation • Worked with regional Conservation organization to create a youth camp that taught entrepreneurship and conservation • Students created business ideas in the growing eco-tourism industry • Students learned the importance of developing sustainable businesses that celebrate their community

15. Contact Information Malinda Todd NC REAL Enterprises 3739 National Drive, Suite 110 Raleigh, NC 27612 phone: 919-781-6833 ext. 126 malinda@ncreal.org www.ncreal.org Leslie Scott N.C. Rural Center 4021 Carya Drive Raleigh, NC 27610 Phone: 919-250-4314 lscott@ncruralcenter.org www.ncruralcenter.org