UA Teammates Fuel the Next Generation of Entrepreneurs
Source: These Teens Mean Business
I was in education in various capacities for twenty years. One of the most successful years was at a charter school. The charter allowed me to implement a website development and small business course. Because we only had a semester, and coding wasn’t my strongest skill, I utilized WYSIWYG programs and created folders on my hosting server under my CBP website for each student. The students were required to create a business plan (I taught college business writing as an adjunct at Park University at the same time), they had to develop a logo (the school couldn’t afford Adobe products, so we used Microsoft Office), they then had to create a WYSIWYG website, and then the students had to create a 30 second video spot for each business and then edit the video. I can write all of this because, like I said, it was one of the most memorable classes I ever taught. At the end of the semester the students presented their business idea and video to the entire school.
The students in that class were never late, were always engaged and when the computers were down they wanted to talk about possibly doing these businesses for real.
Take that concept and add in real investors and a company that is focused on helping to build communities and you have Creators 4 Change.
“The mission of Creators 4 Change is to improve Baltimore’s image by uniting individuals who believe in the city’s potential for positive transformation. To promote this message, the students are creating a blog that features interviews with influential business and community leaders contributing to Baltimore’s progress.”
The 15 week program is mentored by Under Armour and while UA isn’t actually dedicating money, I’ve written in books on business about how my biggest error in business has been the absence of mentors. Mentors can’t be overestimated. The one aspect of my class at the charter school that was missing was having business owners come in and talk. It was very difficult to get people to come in and I explained to my students that it was what made my task in small business so difficult.
If you’d like to know more about C4C, take a moment to click through on the source link.