Project GRAD Akron students get down to business

Natural soaps. High-quality women's tote bags. Cookies and customized model cars. Colorful bandanas and saxophone lessons.

One by one, the young entrepreneurs stepped to the front of the Buchtel High School auditorium in mid-August and defended their ideas to market a product or service to make money.

At $10 an hour — minus depreciation and after deducting the cost for reeds and a vendors' license — Samson Griffin calculated he could make $2,832.95 a year teaching saxophone lessons. Shonda Johnson admitted to judges she might have to adjust the sticker price on her "high quality tote" bags, but said she believed her bags could command $500 each at a boutique because "a unique style makes it worthwhile."

The students are incoming freshmen at Buchtel High School and part of Project GRAD Akron, a program intended to increase the high school and college graduation rates of students in Akron's Buchtel cluster.

For two weeks in early August, about 35 new Project GRAD students got a step ahead in the business world, thanks to a grant from The Burton D. Morgan Foundation.

The programming used at Buchtel was developed by the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE), formerly the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship. A Cleveland-based organization called E CITY has been successfully teaching the NFTE curriculum since 2002. The Morgan Foundation has been supporting that effort and encouraging E CITY to expand into Summit County.

E CITY aims to help inner city students see the connection between academics and "real life" and shows them how to be responsible and financially self-sufficient.

During the session, the students studied the basics of entrepreneurship, such as finding opportunities, calculating start-up investment costs, and considering the competition. They had to calculate cost and profit. The six finalists presented their plans on the final day of the program.

Lyric Henderson's proposal was Tasty Bakes, a company to make and sell sugar and chocolate chip cookies. She was honest in admitting the firm's weakness. "Sometimes I consume the product," she said.

The winner was Jada Langston, whose company, Crafty Bandanas, would produce colorful scarves that could be worn by women or men. The judges deemed her presentation impressive and her knowledge of her product to be solid.

Second-place went to Soulful Jazz, the saxophone lesson company proposed by Samson Griffin, who impressed the judges with his skill when he played a few soulful bars. The third place winner was Andria Hatten, who proposed selling all-natural bath soap.

Andria felt fortunate to get to participate in the program. "I want to start my own company someday," she said.