Middle School Girls Get Taste of Entrepreneurship Program piques entrepreneurial interest and helps student entrepreneurs start and run their own businesses
By Devlin Smith
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
In a recent survey of students in grades 7 to 12 commissioned bythe Simmons Schoolof Management in Boston and The Committee of 200, a businesswomen'sgroup, just 9 percent of girls polled listed business as a careerthey'd like to pursue. If posed to students at The Girls' MiddleSchool (GMS) in Mountain View, California, this question maynet different results.
For four years, seventh graders at the school have had theopportunity to participate in the Entrepreneurial EducationProgram, a class where students create, run and seek funding fortheir own ventures. Each business is run during the school year bya team of four students with the help of two volunteer coaches fromlocal businesses and an eighth grade mentor who went through theprogram the year before.
"Working in small groups, students write business plans,request start-up capital from investors, make product samples,manufacture inventory and sell their products or services toreal-world customers," says Ann Tardy, co-director of theprogram. "Drawing upon lessons learned in many aspects of theGMS curriculum, the girls learn firsthand the importance ofcreativity, teamwork, communication, consensus-building, personalresponsibility and compromise as they experience the joys andfrustrations of running their own businesses."
Amanda Howard, vice president of finance for Kablam!, a companythat sells candy, hemp jewelry and greeting cards, learned some ofthose lessons early on. "One girl in my group wanted jewelryand I wanted cards, so we combined the ideas," she says. Thiscompromise has made for a successful business that not only earneda $100 investment from Susan Mason, a general partner with ONSETVentures, a Menlo Park, California, venture capital firmspecializing in start-ups, but is also a customer favorite."We've sold out at sales events and had our tablesswarmed," says Howard.
Participants in the program also experienced the fear andexcitement of presenting to investors at a funding event inJanuary. The students set up booths for a trade show, createdbusiness plans and spoke about their businesses to a panel of 10venture capitalists at the Microsoft Conference Center in SiliconValley. "Entrepreneurial Night is an invaluable opportunityfor the girls to understand what real entrepreneurs have to do toget started," Tardy says. "They develop theirpublic-speaking skills and overcome fears as they stand in front ofwell-known investors and a packed audience to present theirbusiness plans. There is no replacement for actually experiencingthat and learning that they can do it."
The students agree. "My experience is one I'll neverforget," says Shantya Martinez, vice president of marketingfor Hippers!, a company that sells diaries. "It felt greatbeing up there and have investors listen to me."
The girls are also enjoying this opportunity to make money.Profits from these ventures are divided between the investor, thestudents and a charity of the students' choice. Aside from themoney, though, they say creating a popular product is also a plus."Many of the girls at our school love our bags and thinkthey're really cute," says Emma Sharer, whose company,Smorgasbord, makes handbags out of old jeans. "Overall itseems like many people are interested."
The end of the school year presents many choices for these youngentrepreneurs: Some will decide to become mentors to nextyear's crop of Entrepreneurial Education Program participants,while others will continue running their businesses after leavingthe program. Though she enjoyed the experience, Sharer, who servedas vice president of operations, and her Smorgasbord partners areready for a rest. "We're really tired of running it, so wedecided to stop or take a break," she says.
Regardless of what next year holds for these seventh graders andtheir businesses, this class will have a lasting impact. "Ilearned what it takes to make a business successful; I learned thetrue meaning of teamwork," Martinez says. "I will usewhat I learned in this class later in life."
