Learning The Ropes
Entrepreneurs-to-be get a jump start.
Wanted: Bright, hardworking kids
For: Business training
Reward: Possible entrepreneurial future
If you were to compose an ad for the youth business programs
launched by KidsWay Inc. or Taller San Jose, it might very well run
something like that. Take, for instance, Chamblee, Georgia-based
KidsWay's youth-operated retail store, which sells
environmental and educational products. "They're doing a
great job," says KidsWay chair and CEO Steve Morris of the
eight high school students who've run the company's
Alpharetta, Georgia, store since it opened last fall. "We put
them in there and basically said `Figure it out.' And they
did."
As the self-proclaimed first store in the country to be run
soley by kids, the enterprise follows a school-to-work curriculum
developed by KidsWay. Observes Morris, "Kids would rather
learn by doing."
Content Continues Below
That same philosophy is reflected in Santa Ana, California-based
Taller San Jose's The Benchmakers program. A little more than a
year old, The Benchmakers introduces Latino youths with troubled
backgrounds to bench-crafting and business basics. "We want
[participants] to begin to understand all the elements that go into
[business]," says program co-founder Eileen McNerney.
"We're not just teaching them how to make quality
benches."
Will any of these workers go on to become entrepreneurs?
McNerney, who devised the program with architect Dominic Walsh,
thinks it's quite possible. "These young people are quite
bright," she says. "They just didn't have much
opportunity or mentoring [growing up]." Now they--and the
KidsWay teens--are taking care of business their way.
Contact Sources
KidsWay Inc., 5589 Peachtree Rd., Chamblee, GA 30341,
(888) KIDS-WAY
Taller San Jose, 801 N. Broadway, Santa Ana, CA
92701-3423, (714) 543-5105, ext. 106.