In the News

Who would have thought that an off-hand comment made during class would lead a group of high school kids to develop an app; launch a successful start-up; win $12,000 in a national “Shark Tank”-type pitch competition; and, most importantly, find a way to make older Americans feel less isolated, particularly in the era of COVID-19?

Malav Patel and Steven Reed, seniors at Nile North High School talk about their UV school sanitizer disinfecting device.

Since 2011, Collier high school students have participated in entrepreneurship programming through Uncharted Learning, a not-for-profit that develops youth entrepreneurial programs. The middle schools followed suit in 2016.  What started with clubs is now offered as an elective course for middle school students due to high interest, Carlos Artime, director of career and technical education, said.

Educational institutions are shifting their efforts toward offering a curriculum that keeps students engaged by teaching relevant, practical knowledge that bridges the gap between school and the real-world working environment. Four Frisco ISD high schools have started offering a unique business incubator course that teaches students how to develop their own business from the ground up and enables the students to pitch the idea to real investors. 

For years now, schools have spent time and resources on an aspect of education beyond academics: social and emotional well-being. Yet effective social/emotional programming at the high school level remains elusive, as administrators struggle to force a non-academic subject into a traditional high school model focused on college and career readiness.

However, we’re seeing that entrepreneurship programs can “flip the script” on anxiety...

Several years ago, when I was president of McDonald’s West Coast operations, I needed to meet with a Los Angeles area franchisee before heading back east to Chicago. My driver pulled into the parking lot, where a young African-American security guard was on duty. We nodded at each other — I’m certain I was wearing a suit — as I walked inside.

A few minutes later, the security guard approached the owner and me, prompting us to ask whether there was an issue outside. “No,” he said. “I just want to have a moment to speak to the gentleman here.” We chatted for a few minutes. He was probably in his mid-20s and had just recently returned from two tours of duty in Iraq.

“Thank you for talking to me,” he said. “It’s just that I haven’t seen anybody like you before” — meaning a Black man with a high-level position in corporate America and important enough to have someone drive him around while he worked. 

Francis Tuttle Technology Center is launching a new Entrepreneurship Academy program that will be a central focus of the new Danforth Campus.  

When we’re kids, we can’t wait to grow up. We want a cool job, a paycheck, and to make a difference in the world. Many of us wait until we’re adults to take the first step toward career goals… But today’s young entrepreneurs are taking matters into their own hands at an early age in Collier County, Florida.

Student entrepreneurs have applied their hard-earned wisdom to improving virtual school, too. A team of students from INCubatoredu, a high school entrepreneurship program based in Illinois, reworked their business Trashbots to make robotics and coding accessible and provide hands-on STEM education at home.

What started as a simple idea has grown into a thriving non-profit serving countless seniors in the greater Austin area. We're talking about WalkThru, a student startup that provides seniors in assisted living communities a way to feel connected, even while we are living in a pandemic.