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Morgan Foundation grant brings youth programs to Summit County
6/23/2009
A highly-touted program that engages urban youth in entrepreneurship is expanding into Summit County.
A grant from The Burton D. Morgan Foundation will enable E CITY, which has been running school-year programs and business camps for urban youth in Cleveland since 2002, to replicate some of those programs in Summit County.
The programming has been developed by the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship. Urban students will learn to identify business opportunities, market ideas, keep good records, and calculate return on investment. They also will meet local entrepreneurs, tour businesses, develop business plans with the help of volunteer business mentors, present their ideas to local business leaders and receive start-up funds.
The Foundation has been supporting E CITY programs in Cleveland since 2006. Foundation trustees sought to bring the programs to Summit County. The grant – up to $120,000 – includes some money for the existing Cleveland programs.
“We believe in the potential of entrepreneurship education to transform the lives of youth by enhancing the relevance of education, including higher education. We are pleased to support this opportunity for students in Summit County to chart their futures with heightened levels of knowledge and entrepreneurial experiences to guide them. The current financial crisis further underscores the need for students to gain real world experiences and greater financial literacy so they can perhaps one day create their own jobs,” said Deborah Hoover, president of The Burton D. Morgan Foundation.
Three local organizations will partner with E CITY to present the Summit County programming: Boys Hope Girls Hope, through its Hope Prep summer program for middle school students; Emmanuel Christian Academy, through a summer BizCamp for middle school students; and Project GRAD Akron through summer and school-year programs for Buchtel High School students.
Foundation trustees also recently approved grants to the following organizations:
National Inventors Hall of Fame Foundation – $77,000 to fund 20 Club Invention programs (14 in Akron and six in Wooster) and two Camp Invention sites (one each in Akron and Wooster).
Scholarship of Entrepreneurial Engagement – $65,000 to Ashland University for two programs aimed at teaching high school students about the need for entrepreneurs, the skills entrepreneurs require and entrepreneurial ventures in Northeast Ohio.
Case Western Reserve University – $100,000 to subsidize employment at Case Western Reserve University of a Liaison for Student Innovation and Entrepreneurial Projects and fund related expenses.
Akron City School District – $50,000 to develop and present six workshops for teachers at the National Inventors Hall of Fame School . . . Center for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Learning – the new middle school in Akron – about fostering an “entrepreneurial mindset” in students at the school.
University School – $56,000 for entrepreneurship programs at the school and to expand outreach to other Northeast Ohio teachers and students.
Girl Scouts of North East Ohio – $50,000 to implement a financial literacy and urban entrepreneurship program.
Junior Achievement of East Central Ohio – $27,000 to provide JA Economics and a daylong Young Entrepreneur Seminar (YES!) to Stark County high school students.
Junior Achievement of Greater Cleveland -- $45,000 to provide programming in Cuyahoga, Lake, Geauga, and Lorain counties, consisting of entrepreneurship and career building programs for middle schoolers; JA Company for high school students; and an annual Student Company Challenge event.
BioEnterprise Corporation – $200,000 to support business development and internship programs for promising bioscience companies in Northeast Ohio.
Western Reserve Public Media – $56,000 to public broadcasting affiliate, formerly known as PBS 45/49, to produce a new, half-hour weekly broadcast focused on regional business and economic development.
Hudson Library & Historical Society – $40,000 to enhance and expand the technology and resources of the Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship Research and to expand the entrepreneurship lecture series.
TiE Ohio – $15,000 to fund at least eight educational and networking programs for Northeast Ohio’s emerging entrepreneurs.
Hudson Community First – $14,000 to educate Hudson students about diverse career opportunities by staging three career panels and continuing the Intern for a Day program.
