Raising Entrepreneurs

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For eight Siouxland teens, the Okoboji Entrepreneurial Institute’s first middle school session is for learning and dreaming.

Instructor Karla Kyle, who teaches business classes in the Harris-Lake Park schools, said the program is offered to middle school students “because this is the age where they start thinking about their careers as they create a business plan for their dream business and execute that plan.”

The institute started Monday and runs through Friday.

This “is a great opportunity because it gets them to think about options. This will also help students select classes that will help them in their career choice.”

Each of the eight students has a great idea for a business, Kyle added. And according to counselor Donalle Rodas, the students will compete to earn cash awards of up to $100.

Ryan Clark, of Okoboji, will need more than the top prize to get his venture started. Clark plans to open a hotel with a lot of recreational facilities on the West Coast. Clark expects the course will teach him “more about being an entrepreneur and what it’s about.”

Spencer’s Taylor Rouse, who plans to study veterinary medicine, wants to develop a pet day care service. The eighth-grader said being with animals doesn’t feel like work. “It’s just fun. And there aren’t a lot of people doing small-animal day care.”

Spirit Lake eighth-grader Cale Schmidt admits he’s a dreamer and has several ideas for video games. “I’m the kind of guy that likes to invent and sell things.” He said his ideas come from dreaming. “Sometimes I’m not the best listener.”

But Schmidt’s institute project is not technological. It’s a restaurant offering freshly cooked, healthful choices, “so people don’t have to be worried about what they’re eating.” His influence is his mom, who makes a lot of salads for dinner, he said. “And we’re water drinkers.”

Candace Brazel, who’s in the Talented and Gifted program at Laurens-Marathon Middle School, is another potential veterinarian who wants to open a place where teenagers can “hang out and be off the streets and not getting into bad habits.” She believes food and beverage sales could support her business.

Katie Evans, of Laurens, wants to use her dancing experience to open a dance studio. Just entering her first year of high school, Evans said she has learned that rejection is part of being an entrepreneur.

After working on her middle school yearbook, Caitlyn Heuton, of Laurens, is thinking about opening a photo studio.

The rejection Evans noted becomes relief, Heuton learned, when someone finally says yes. “Failure happens a lot. And you just have to keep dealing with it and trying.”

At 5 feet 7-3/4 inches tall, Regan Grossnickle, of rural Laurens, wants to design and sell jeans and accessories for other tall girls. Grossnickle said the class speakers urged the students not to give up on their dreams just because they fail one time.

Spencer ninth-grader Abigail Wallace said she has already learned that “sometimes failure is a good thing if we learn from it.”

Source: Sioux City Journal