National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship Funds Programs in Miami Schools
This summer, 126 students from Miami Schools entered a six-week training session and contest to learn about entrepreneurship. Funded and run by the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship, the six week summer session will teach the students how to create a business plan, how to secure start up funds and then how to pitch the idea to real business people. The twelve best plans will compete in the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship Macy’s 2006 Business Plan Competition. Only one winner will represent Florida in New York in October with a chance to win $10,000.
The Miami Schools system has some of the highest dropout rates in the state of Florida. One of the principal reasons for this may be that students a bored and do not see how their school work relates to the real world. The National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship contest shows how owning a business relates to math and reading skills. This gives a meaning and a relevance to education. A study by the Harvard Graduate School of Education found that students exposed to entrepreneurship classes are more interested in education, are more likely to go to college and more likely to engage in independent reading than their peers.