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Middle School Girls Get Taste of Entrepreneurship

Program piques entrepreneurial interest and helps student entrepreneurs start and run their own businesses

By Devlin Smith

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

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.

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