OppenheimerFunds and Young Americans Center for Financial Education in Denver (YA) are in the final year of a five-year agreement to develop and implement two educational elements that has greatly expanded Young Americans programming beyond its original K-6 student base: Get aHead for Business and the Young Entrepreneurs Tool Kit.
Get aHead for Business is the centerpiece of our partnership, combining interactive classroom learning with real-life experience over three semester-long high school courses. Students are taught how to start, manage and grow a business. During the second semester, they put their skills into action and run a business inside their school.
Over the five-year period of funding Young Americans was able to develop this programming through the creation of curriculum for Get aHead for Business 101, 201 and 401. More recently, YA worked to ensure that Get aHead for Business objectives were in line with national business and marketing education content standards. “Starting a Business 101” and “Running a Business 201” were also submitted for review by economic content specialists to enable students to receive economic credit in school if approved by their districts.
In 2009, 53 high schools across Colorado and approximately 1085 students participated in Get aHead for Business Semester One: Starting Your Business. Twenty-two high schools offered the second semester curriculum: Running Your Business with nearly 525 students participating in the classroom and on-site student run businesses. Student-run businesses included coffee carts and smoothie bars, school diner, vinyl signs, bookbinding, community marketplace, catering and school stores.
All eight of the Young Entrepreneurs Tool Kit guide elements, employed by young people interested in developing business-building skills, have been completed and are in use at a number of after-school and summer day camp programs throughout the state, in addition to being taught at the Young Americans Center.
Additionally, 123 youth businesses and 163 young entrepreneurs participated in the 15th annual Young Entrepreneurs Marketplaces sponsored by OppenheimerFunds. Nearly 750 shoppers came out to support the budding entrepreneurs.
For more information on Young Americans, visit their website at: www.yacenter.org.
Since its launch in 1987, Young Americans Center for Financial Education has served more than 330,000 youth across Colorado and in other states. An innovative organization, Young Americans is committed to developing young people’s financial literacy through real-life experiences and hands-on programs that teach business and life skills through lessons on free enterprise, entrepreneurship, money management, work-force readiness, civic awareness, financial self-sufficiency and more.
