Bizfest Puts Young Entrepreneurs to the Test
Program hopes to instill entrepreneurial spirit and keep kids in school.

A new program sponsored by the Greater Kansas City Hispanic Chamber of Commerce hopes to put urban youth in the entrepreneurial spirit, and keep them in school.

The chamber is sponsoring Bizfest, a project that will give high school students a crash course in business ownership.

Local and National Competition
The program is a localized version of an effort sponsored by the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. According to the chamber, students will gain entrepreneurial experience, economic literacy, improved skills in math, reading, writing and verbal communication and workforce readiness.

Although the structure for the local program is still being determined, Kansas City Hispanic Chamber president CiCi Rojas said  the chamber plans to select 30 high school students from across the metropolitan area to participate in the program.

“We’ll obviously concentrate in the urban areas—that’s where the highest concentration of minority students are found,” she said.
The students will participate in what is described as a three-day entrepreneurial boot camp, where students will quickly learn the ropes of starting a business, from  coming up with the idea to marketing and finding employees.

“They will learn how to write a business plan, advertising and marketing skills, and some human resources and some professional development skills training,” Rojas said.

A panel of judges, including sponsors, academicians and some small business owners, will select three winners based on the soundness of their business plans. Those three students will go on to compete in the National Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Bizfest at the national convention in October.

Staying in School
While they want to get students thinking about going into business for themselves, a larger goal for the program is to stem the high school drop out rate, especially among Latinos.

“We’re hoping what will happen is that they’ll see the need for higher education,” Rojas said. “They’ll see all the critical components involved in being an entrepreneur and a business owner.”

According to the U.S. Department of Education, 27.8 percent of Hispanics dropped out of high school before graduation in 2000. The national rate overall was 10.9 percent. In Missouri, the drop out rates for Hispanics was 5.13 percent, compared to a statewide overall average of 3.8 percent. In Kansas, the rate was 3.8 percent for Hispanic males and 2.4 percent for Hispanic females.

“This drop out rate issue is so big and the need is so great,” Rojas said. “This program has been a long-term goal for many of us.”

Paul Rodriguez, owner of Rodriguez Mechanical Contractors, is on the planning committee for the program.

“We are trying to create an awareness of the need for education through this program,” he said. “We want the kids to think, ‘Now that I’ve gone through this, maybe I should stay in school.’”

Successful Role Models
Another component of the program is mentoring. Students will be paired with owners of successful businesses,  and organizers hope that these relationships will extend far beyond the length of the project.

Rodriguez said they want to have the ability to track these students as they progress through high school and college. The mentoring relationship can help meet that objective by having mentors call the students quarterly to see how they’re doing. Mentors could also invite students to visit their workplaces.

Several companies have committed resources to the project, including Cable-Dahmer Chevrolet, General Motors, Aquila, Kauffman Foundation, Sprint, KCKS Community College and UMKC.

“The companies that are involved really have a commitment to minority youth,” Rojas said.