Curriculum Satisfies Youth’s Entrepreneurial Education Hunger
More than 20,000 curriculum copies have been sold in the United States and abroad.

By Linda Cruse

Many high school students believe schools are falling short in providing them with the knowledge they need to fulfill one of their dreams: starting a business.
Consider these statistics: seven out of 10 students want to start their own business, according to a Gallup poll completed in cooperation with the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.

In addition, 85 percent of students surveyed indicated they believed it was important to receive entrepreneurship education. At the same time, however, 86 percent of students—nearly the same number—rated themselves very poor to fair on their knowledge of entrepreneurship and business.
And most importantly, 79 percent of the students surveyed said they would be willing to take more classes to gain entrepreneurial knowledge.

A Teaching Solution
That’s where the New Youth Entrepreneur (NYE) curriculum comes in. The 12-part program was piloted at Wyandotte High School in the mid-1990s. Since that time, about 20,000 copies have been sold to schools and youth organizations in the United States and overseas. It is available in both English and Spanish.

Olathe, Raytown, Blue Springs, Westport, Center, Kansas City and Belton are some of the other area school districts that have purchased the program, according to George Waters, CEO of EDTEC, Inc., a Camden, New Jersey-based management consulting and training firm that developed the curriculum in cooperation with the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.

“The program was developed to expose students to entrepreneurship as a career option,” said Waters, a 1969 graduate of Kansas State University. “It was field tested at Wyandotte High School before being marketed nationwide.”

Alice Darnell, a trainer and consultant for the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, was in charge of coordinating and directing the entrepreneurship magnet program at Wyandotte High School for grades 9-12. She was a teacher at the school from 1992 to 1995.

“It was a very effective curriculum,” said Darnell. “It introduced students to the concept of entrepreneurship and helped them see that opportunities existed all around them to start businesses to help others or make a difference.”

Darnell said the curriculum served as the basis for a 12-week after school club. “We met once or twice a week and then students worked independently in-between club meetings on assignments,” she explained. “The material was very understandable and easy for the students to work with.”

Waters said the program is comprised of 12 modules designed to teach the basic concepts of starting or running a business. The program teaches students about setting goals and developing an entrepreneurial attitude.

Carol Majors, senior director of children and youth entrepreneurial education programming at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, said the curriculum is specifically designed for students in grades eight through 10.

“Although the curriculum is sold as a set of 12 modules, teachers can opt to use one or all of the modules,” Majors explained.

Curriculum Topics
The first three modules are designed to introduce students to the concept of entrepreneurship. The curriculum encourages students to think of themselves as entrepreneurs and recognize various business opportunities.

“Students learn about identifying market opportunities and consider businesses that students can start and operate themselves,” Majors said.

Modules four through 11 address specific aspects of starting and running a business, including selling an idea, obtaining capital, market analysis, types of business ownership, resources, ethics and business operation. “They learn about everything from record keeping to business management,” said Majors.

The twelfth and final module addresses writing a business plan. It’s called “You Can Make it Happen.”

“Students receive a blank business plan and actually go through the process of writing a plan for their chosen business,” Majors said.

Positive Results
Because students use creativity and logic to solve problems—as well as the importance of academic preparation in the context of entrepreneurship—the curriculum is valuable to all students, Majors said.

Darnell said students at Wyandotte High School who participated in the entrepreneurial club developed business prototypes and even started their own businesses. “We supplemented the program by bringing in guest speakers,” she said. “The curriculum was basic enough to get students started and was easy to enhance. I would definitely recommend it to schools and organizations interested in starting an entrepreneur program.”

Because of its success, the curriculum is now available as NYE Interactive, a fully interactive, animated presentation. Used by teachers, administrators, youth workers and parents, the interactive program features online assistance.

To learn more about New Youth Entrepreneur curriculum, visit EDTEC’s Web site at www.edtecinc.com.

Linda Cruse is managing editor of Kansas City Small Business Monthly.