Middle School Girls Get Taste of Entrepreneurship Program piques entrepreneurial interest and helps student entrepreneurs start and run their own businesses

In a recent survey of students in grades 7 to 12 commissioned bythe Simmons Schoolof Management in Boston and The Committee of 200, a businesswomen'sgroup, just 9 percent of girls polled listed business as a careerthey'd like to pursue. If posed to students at The Girls' MiddleSchool (GMS) in Mountain View, California, this question maynet different results.

For four years, seventh graders at the school have had theopportunity to participate in the Entrepreneurial EducationProgram, a class where students create, run and seek funding fortheir own ventures. Each business is run during the school year bya team of four students with the help of two volunteer coaches fromlocal businesses and an eighth grade mentor who went through theprogram the year before.

"Working in small groups, students write business plans,request start-up capital from investors, make product samples,manufacture inventory and sell their products or services toreal-world customers," says Ann Tardy, co-director of theprogram. "Drawing upon lessons learned in many aspects of theGMS curriculum, the girls learn firsthand the importance ofcreativity, teamwork, communication, consensus-building, personalresponsibility and compromise as they experience the joys andfrustrations of running their own businesses."