Setting Up Camp
Forget the knot-tying merit badge--this camp teaches kids skills they'll use in business.
Young people need direction. And if Students in Free Enterprise
(SIFE) have anything to do with it, the next generation will
receive direction toward being entrepreneurs. YoungBiz, a youth
educational organization, and SIFE have joined forces to create
educational camps and workshops to teach children 11 to 17 about
business, entrepreneurship, investing and personal finance.
"Bringing college students interested in teaching free
enterprise together with [our] curriculum just seemed like a
perfect fit," says Misty Elliott, executive vice president of
YoungBiz. "There's a lot of synergy with what we can
accomplish together."
At these nationwide camps, SIFE's college-age students will
teach the younger pupils the YoungBiz curriculum, including skills
like writing a business plan and creating an investment portfolio.
"It's crazy that you go through college and they don't
teach you how to start and run a business," says Elliott.
"When it's small business that fuels the economy, just
imagine what would happen if we had a really educated generation of
young entrepreneurs that became the small-business owners of
tomorrow."
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Camps have already been rolled out in Atlanta; Houston; New
York; Orlando, Florida; San Francisco; and Washington, DC. To see
where SIFE and YoungBiz are headed next, check out www.sife.org and www.youngbiz.com.