BOY SCOUTS RECEIVE A NEW BADGE
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When
Gregg Gadola heard about a Boy Scout badge in entrepreneurship, the
Hudson Scout didn't hesitate.
"I really wanted to do this," he said.
He also knew it would be hard work. This badge would require focusing
on a business to create, doing a marketing and financial plan and
then actually starting the business. That was last fall. Today, the
13-year-old from Troop 327 has his badge - and his own babysitting
business.
He is one of 174 Scouts over the last year who have begun working on
the entrepreneurship badge, made possible by a $100,000 three-year
grant from The Burton D. Morgan Foundation to the Great Trail
Council, Boy Scouts of America.
"Teaching our youth the free enterprise system along with
the values of the Scout oath and law, can only insure that we make
great leaders for America's future," Mike Jones, executive
director of the Great Trail Council, said.
About a dozen Scouts have completed the badge. And while business
isn't exactly booming - it has to be squeezed into football practice
- entrepreneur Gregg has learned a lot, says his mother Marty.
This actually wasn't Gregg's first business. That came in fifth grade
when, as part of a class assignment, he started a company putting
photographs on refrigerator magnets.
This business is more involved. As part of the grant, a small stipend
is available to Scouts nearing the end of the badge work. They can
use the money for what they need to actually set up the business.
Gregg used the money to take first-aid and babysitting safety classes
and then to put together "age appropriate" toy bags, which
can be taken on the job. For younger children, there are toys that
make noises when buttons are pressed. For older children, the bag
includes the board game Twister.
The cost for Safe Babysitting Service is $6.50 an hour, plus a fuel
surcharge if Marty Gadola has to do the delivering.
"This is something I just want to do to make some pocket
change," says Gregg, who wants to be a veterinarian someday.
The Foundation is also sponsoring a similar program for the Heart of
Ohio Council, Boy Scouts of America.
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OHIO BUSINESS WEEK -
GREAT EXPERIENCE FOR ALL
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At Ohio Business
Week, there is no Donald Trump to say: "You're fired."
There are however, lots of experienced business coaches who volunteer
their time to help guide tomorrow's would-be entrepreneurs.
For nearly 20 years,
Ohio Business Week has been providing high school students from
across the state with the hands-on learning opportunity of business
creation.
In
2008, a $12,000 grant from The Burton D. Morgan Foundation helped pay
for 17 students from Northeast Ohio to attend one of two sessions -
either at Youngstown State University or Ohio Dominican University in
Columbus.
The students are divided into groups of about eight each. They form a
company, elect officers and come up with a product or service to
create and market - something to fill a need. The students must
research how a product or service can be created and will function.
They develop business, financial and marketing plans.
At YSU this summer, the product from the winning team was a dish that
stays hot and keeps food hot. The students on this team brainstormed
the idea after realizing that many of them had eaten cold leftovers
because their activities had made them late for dinner.
Their
research showed that magnets connected by a copper coil could create
a kinetic energy field and heat - and how the relatively inexpensive
magnetic device could be attached to the bottom of a plate.
They marketed their kinetic kitchenware, which they determined they
could sell at four plates for $15 and still make a small profit -
with slogans like "when meal time needs time." Or
another image: chocolate chip cookies that have that "same gooey
chocolate" as fresh from the oven.
For many of the students, the week is a life-changing experience.
Kendall
Mahon from Hudson was on a team making and marketing reusable note
cards.
During a mid-week luncheon, she told the guests: "After only
three days, I know business is going to be my major. I'm going to be
the CEO of a major company."
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GREEN CORPS
SALSA-MAKING OPERATION A SUCCESS!
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It's a mid-August
morning in a basement dining hall on the campus of Case Western
Reserve University. In one small kitchen area, three students wash
and core tomatoes. In another area, a young woman shoves those
tomatoes through a slicer, while a co-worker takes the slices, puts
them a few at a time on a grate and pushes down a lever. Nearby,
buckets of chopped tomatoes drain.
On this particular morning, the students will chop 450 pounds of
tomatoes.
At a table in the center of the dining hall, other students core,
seed and dice green peppers. Soon the pile of chopped green peppers
is replaced with a pile of jalapenos. And the process is repeated.
It's all part of the salsa-making operation undertaken
by the Cleveland Botanical Garden's Green Corps Urban Youth Program,
which is being helped by a grant from The Burton D. Morgan
Foundation.
The goal of the program is not only to engage young people in
horticulture but also to teach them entrepreneurship and business
development - literally from the ground up.
Many of the tomatoes and peppers being chopped this particular
morning were planted by these same students at one of four community
gardens in Cleveland.
Green Corps is a three-year program - primarily summers - and the
competition is stiff. The 55 students participating this summer were
chosen from 200 applicants. They earn the minimum wage. Most of them
could easily have found other summer jobs.
"This is something different. It's a new experience," said
Mieshia Barnes, who will head off to the University of Cincinnati
when her summer job finishes.
In this program, the first-year students do much of the planting,
weeding and watering. That even means picking off pests by hand,
since this is organic gardening.
The second-year students assume more responsibility and learn about
marketing, accounting and business planning. That is where the grant
from the Morgan Foundation played a role. It enabled three
instructors from the Botanical Garden to get specialized training
from the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) in
New York City.
The emphasis of the NFTE group is to teach entrepreneurship education
to young people from low-income communities in the belief that every
young person can find a pathway to prosperity.
On the morning of the tomato and pepper chopping, other Green Corps
members were putting into practice some of those entrepreneurial
skills.
The Green Corps had a stand at a farmers market on the
Cleveland Clinic campus. Four students were busy selling
greens, radishes, herbs and tomatoes - all grown in those community
gardens.
The 2008 salsa wasn't ready yet - it would take another week for the
bottling company to finish - but this group was selling its other
bottled product: blackberry vinaigrette. Last year, the salsa sold
out but not the vinaigrette.
These enterprising students were convinced that if people tried the
vinaigrette, they would buy it. So they were passing out samples of
the sweet thick dressing on soda crackers. They were right:
Some who tasted bought.
This year, in addition to the sale of the fresh produce, the goal is
to bottle and sell 6,000 jars of "Ripe from Downtown"
salsa.
"That's a lot of salsa," said Botanical Garden Director of
Education Geri Unger.
Then she added: "But 90 percent of our product is
education."
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CAMP INVENTION
- JUNIOR ACHIEVEMENT
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Youngsters who attend
Camp Invention are taught to think outside of the box - to use
discarded household devices to solve problems and make new
inventions.
But sometimes, working inside the box can add a dimension as well.
That was the case one afternoon in July when youngsters at McDowell
Elementary School in Hudson were working with cardboard boxes to
create their own storefront businesses. The exercise was a pilot
project to dovetail the goals of Camp Invention and Junior
Achievement.
At Camp Invention, the emphasis is on being inventive, solving
problems and being creative. The JA portion of the program encouraged
the campers to think about taking their inventions and their
knowledge and creating their own businesses.
"You can't say, 'OK, I'm going to start a business,'"
teacher Cinda Sheldon explained to the campers during the Junior
Achievement session. Rather, she told them, "You have to ask,
'How much will it cost for materials . . . How is the neighborhood
going to know?' "
The students then talked about logos - how yellow arches bring to
mind McDonald's and a swoosh turns our minds to Nike. It was then up
to the students to think about forming their own businesses.
That's where working with the cardboard boxes came into play. On the
outside, the boxes were business fronts. Inside, the work was being
done.
In one area of the room, two girls worked on colorful poster board,
designing looks and a logo for their envisioned clothing
business. In another area, the cardboard box was taking on the
look of a sports stadium. The boys in that group were thinking of
owning their own sports franchise.
The Burton D. Morgan Foundation, which supports both Camp Invention
and Junior Achievement programs, considers this partnership "an
excellent example of organizations with similar goals creating an
even greater impact through collaboration," Foundation President
Deborah Hoover said.
"Camp Invention brings the invention/innovation piece and Junior
Achievement overlays entrepreneurial thinking to allow students to
experience the entire entrepreneurship process," she added.
"Partnership between our program (Camp Invention) and Junior
Achievement has proven to be dynamic in both results for the children
who participated in both programs, curricula and in teaching us (CI
and JA) how to best blend our learning modules so we can offer the
best possible programming," said Alaina Greenman, core
curriculum and program extensions manager for Camp Invention.
She said the two organizations are hoping to expand the partnership
both regionally and nationally in the coming years.
"With many of the same organizational goals, we will strive to
touch many more young lives in the future," she said.
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President's
Message
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Welcome to the first
issue of the Foundation's Venture Adventure newsletter capturing
youth entrepreneurship stories and achievements from across the
Northeast Ohio region!
In addition to providing grants to support entrepreneurship
education, the Foundation is actively engaged in uniting youth
entrepreneurship programs into a dynamic network.
In 2008, the Foundation joined the national Youth Entrepreneurship
Strategy Group cosponsored by the National Foundation for Teaching
Entrepreneurship (NFTE), E*Trade Financial and the Aspen
Institute.
Together this group of leaders in education, philanthropy and youth
development is working to advance the field of youth entrepreneurship
education as a vehicle to empower students from low-income
communities.
This newsletter will share stories and announcements to connect
students, teachers and entrepreneurs from across the region and
inspire them to explore their entrepreneurial potential.
We extend special thanks to NFTE for allowing us to adopt the Venture
Adventure title for our newsletter!
Look for more stories in our upcoming editions that will showcase the
imagination and initiative of our Northeast Ohio young entrepreneurs
and dedicated educators.
Deborah
D. Hoover
President
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