Raising Entrepreneurs

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Jack Spooner, 12, of Parkville weeds his neighbor’s flowerbeds July 16. Spooner, who started a small lawn care business, attended an entrepreneurs camp at Metropolitan Community College-Maple Woods.

Kate Duffy’s students are bright, driven and ready to start their own Donald Trump stories. Of course, they still have to go to high school.

Duffy led a first-time camp for young entrepreneurs from July 14 to 18 at Metropolitan Community College-Maple Woods.

Seven participants in sixth through eighth grades got hands-on experience with every facet of a successful business, including finance, marketing and management, Duffy said.

The goal of the camp, Duffy said, is to get kids interested in running their own ventures and plant the skills they’ll need to succeed. The younger the better, when it comes to business education, she claimed.

“Actually, I wish we could start teaching these kids when they are six,” Duffy said. “Entrepreneurship is such a good way to teach important life skills to kids, like how to think clearly, stay organized and look for opportunities.”

The camp’s genesis goes back to the First Step Fund, a nonprofit agency that’s helped thousands of people in the Kansas City area learn entrepreneurship skills, according to the group’s Web site.

Duffy and First Step Fund graduate Pat Ross decided to convert the group’s curriculum for elementary and middle school students.

Duffy and Ross put together a proposal that was approved for funding by an internal grant program at MCC. Five-day camps were held throughout July at MCC’s Penn Valley, Maple Woods, Blue River and Longview campuses.

Entrepreneurship is “being able to see opportunities in the world and take calculated risks,” Duffy said.

David Andrews is 13 years old, a home-schooled Liberty resident and willing to take a calculated risk. After his parents returned from a trip to Hawaii with tales of tasty Hawaiian ice, Andrews decided to open his own stand. The camp was a chance to refine the business plan, he said.

“I think the most difficult thing is going to be all the travelling around, to soccer games and stuff,” he said.

Kansas City North resident Elyse Hines, 12, will attend New Mark Middle School this fall. She was starting a tutoring business.

“I’ve done it before. I tutor kids in elementary school, help them become better at their school work,” Hines explained, making her pitch. “It’s affordable, it’s convenient.”

Freedom of choice is the best thing about being an entrepreneur, Hines added.

Read the full story in the KC Community News.

Photo: Sun Tribune