By: Deborah Johnson Wood
GVSU’s Pew Campus will host some three dozen future business leaders at the university’s second annual Teen Entrepreneurship Summer Academy June 25-27. The academy focuses on teaching West Michigan’s next generation of entrepreneurs what it takes to develop a successful business from the initial idea through the steps of market research, networking and procuring financing to implementation.
“If the students don’t have ideas for a business, we’ll supply them with some and then they’ll work in groups with students from other high schools to determine the idea the group wants to develop,” says Eima Mangat, spokesperson for GVSU’s Center for Entrepreneurship. “They spend the first days developing and researching the idea, and the last day presenting the ideas for a cash award.”
GVSU aligned the activities and curriculum of the Academy with the school's Career Pathways Program and the National Entrepreneurship Education Standards.
“The academy gives students a preview of what they might experience in the GVSU classroom,” Mangat says. “If they want to go to college to pursue entrepreneurship, they’ll already know if GVSU is a good fit for them.”
Students will learn from young entrepreneurs, many of whom are students themselves, and will learn firsthand about an array of resources available in West Michigan to help young entrepreneurs grow, manage, market and sustain a business.
The closing event, a pitch competition at 10:30 a.m. on June 27, is open to the public.
Source: Eima Mangat, Grand Valley State University Center for Entrepreneurship
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Deborah Johnson Wood is the development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at [email protected].
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