Last year, Sara Graham observed two teens from a rural community start a business that brokered fashionable totes sewn from feedbags. She also saw kids come up with businesses ranging from dog walking, photography, and on-demand caricatures to manufacturing a new type of kayak anchor.
As the talent and communications director of the
Lansing Economic Area Partnership—or LEAP, Graham was among the judges at a showcase for youth entrepreneurship in Battle Creek. That expo, she says, was so inspiring that she set about to forge a similar program for youth in the Capital Region.
During the upcoming academic year, more than 100 middle and high school students across mid-Michigan will learn how to develop business ideas and present them to the community through the
Generation E Institute youth entrepreneurship curriculum. "With our economy changing so rapidly, we see more and more people will have to become their own bosses," says Graham. "At LEAP, we want to ensure that we can help get entrepreneurship principles down to a younger level. Generation E does that."
The next generation
Based in Battle Creek, the non-profit
Generation E Institute offers youth entrepreneurial education programs and consulting services to schools and community-based organizations. The institute currently teams up with more than 220 educators in 22 Michigan counties and several other states. Greater Lansing will join the roster with the support of LEAP and the Michigan Economic Development Corporation.
"I'm from the Lansing area and we basically said we needed to bring this opportunity to the region," says Marsha Madle, certified business solutions professional and Michigan associate for the Generation E Institute. "Lansing is our state capital, MSU is here, we have all these wonderful resources. Instead of going around from community to community, LEAP made it possible for this to be the first Generation E program coordinated on a regional level."
Madle confirms that an MEDC grant through LEAP enabled her and other Generation E staff to reach out and train 56 volunteers in 16 communities to deliver the program's curriculum. Those communities span Ingham, Eaton and Clinton counties, as well as towns and villages in bordering municipalities. Facilitators, she says, are being recruited from a pool of stakeholders who attended five community meetings earlier this spring. Established groups or organizations with an interest in youth were invited to attend and included educators from public and private schools, business leaders, government and civic officials, and representatives from faith-based organizations.
"Generation E is wonderful because it works well wherever there are youth," says Madle of the program that targets students 10 to 18 years of age. "It works for rural, inner cities, cities and suburbs. Our curriculum is geared for the individual student."
Generation E is a copyrighted curriculum that can be used as a full course in a variety of settings for flexible periods. Courses may be integrated into the school's curriculum, or students may participate through facilitated courses within before or after school, home school or community-based programs. Coursework focuses on applying basic skills such as math, reading and writing to build a business plan. Students also learn how to assess a plan's feasibility through help from trained and experienced mentors.
The program articulates to college credits at many colleges around the state, including Lansing Community College and Davenport University. Recruited and certified facilitators are also eligible to receive State of Michigan Continuing Education Credits for their time. With community meetings completed and facilitator selection underway, Generation E and LEAP are setting the stage for training to start up in August. Facilitators will be trained at both middle and high school levels by the end of the fall, with sights set on having the program implemented by spring semester.
"Students will experience the connectivity between what they learn and the community," says Madle. "Whether they go on to become small business owners, entrepreneurs or employees, we feel the programs provide them a better understanding and respect of what goes in to running a business."
Future starts
Although a day's drive and thousands of pine trees away from Lansing, the city of Escanaba in the Upper Peninsula shows the symbiosis between Generation E and a downtown district."Students told us that they never went downtown because everything closed up at 4," says Madle of Generation E students in Escanaba. "When we talked to businesses, they confirmed that, too."
Facilitators through Generation E worked with students to secure funding, coordinate with Escanaba's downtown development authority, and turn a vacant store front into an incubator for student-run businesses. Students sought out business mentors and advice, set up their own student-run enterprises, and opened the door to customers—mostly after 4 p.m. "To me, that's the whole picture of how the community can get involved," says Madle. "It's an example of how we can build that pipeline between students and businesses that can help students learn."
LEAP understands that relationship and benefits as well.The Gen E program is also a direct feeder for existing spaces like the City of East Lansing's student business accelerator,
The Hatch. "“We want people to learn how to think outside the box at younger ages, creating a pipeline of entrepreneurs and connecting them into the network already in place," says Graham. "We have extensive incubator support, including The Hatch which was created specifically as a collaboration space for student entrepreneurs as well as many opportunities for these budding entrepreneurs to participate in pitch competitions to advance their ideas and potentially secure funding.”
Generation E, she says, provides the training, connections and entrepreneurial strategies students need to take a business idea and run with it. She's excited about the prospects for a program that could grow to involve thousands of students and dozens of communities. For now, she's looking ahead to an end-of-school-year expo where participating students can present their business concepts and compete for a chance to win awards and recognition.
"They might not want to continue their cupcake business forever," says Graham of the young entrepreneurs, "but they will continue with the principles. That's what we really care about."
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Ann Kammerer is a freelance writer for Capital Gains.
Photos ©
Dave Trumpie
Dave Trumpie is the managing photographer for Capital Gains. He is a freelance photographer and owner of
Trumpie Photography.