Cairo Association of Teachers - Newsletter

CAT Tracks for June 7, 2006 YOUNG CAIRO ENTREPRENEUR

From the Southern Illinoisan...

Creativity at its best: Local teens take part in entrepreneurship skills workshop

BY KRISTEN CATES, THE SOUTHERN

CARBONDALE - Some of their ideas sprouted from watching television. Others said it was a sewing machine gifted to them at Christmas that really got their creative juices flowing.

For 16 teenagers from Southern Illinois, it took the Entrepreneurship Skills for Youth workshop and camp at Touch of Nature to get those ideas turned into business plans.

She-na Whitaker, of Thebes, said she has been making clothes for friends for years. The 15-year-old was given a sewing machine at Christmas, and with her dad's help arrived at the camp with a business plan in place. She'll graduate from high school in three years and wants to be prepared for the business world.

"I was taught when I was younger always to excel myself," Whitaker said.

On Tuesday, campers were learning about financing - everything from the cost of buying a computer for the office to purchasing tools and low-income loans - for their projects.

"For most of us, I think we're pretty excelled," said Whitaker. "(I've learned) once you get the loan, you have to think, here's what I'm making, here's what I'm selling."

Whitaker said she intends to sell clothes for newborns and up as well as animal clothing, jewelry and accessories. Her business, which will start out of her home and will offer some delivery services, will be called Dazzling Designs.

"It's good to do something you prefer," she said.

Tiffany Daniels, a financial officer with the Southernmost Illinois Delta Empowerment Zone in Mounds, said a lot of the business plans these kids were coming up with were practical and could potentially qualify for low-income loans.

"I can tell just by looking at some of them they're really serious about what they want to do," Daniels said.

The camp, in its 12th year, is sponsored by the Southernmost Illinois Delta Empowerment Zone, the University of Illinois Extension Center and the Regional Office of Education Workforce Investment Act program. It is aimed at bringing entrepreneurship skills to students who don't receive that sort of training in high school, said Norma Turok of the extension office.

Cavanaugh Gray, of the Young Entrepreneurs Program in Carbondale, reported statistics from a recent Gallup poll that 70 percent of high school students are interested in owning their own business, 90 percent rate their knowledge of small business as "very poor" or only "fair" and that 75 percent of those surveyed want more training.

When 18-year-old Cameron Gardner came to the camp last year, he thought he was going to create an after-school kids' club. But after one day, he scratched that plan and decided to go with his own catering business. He hopes to open his soul food catering business, The Essence of Food, in the next two years.

Gardner, from Cairo, said he learned how to cook when he was 12 by watching his mother and has cooked at a few church events and family reunions.

"It's a great learning experience," he said. "It helps you with everything you need to know about starting up a business."

Gardner said he learned how to price his meals by dividing them up into portions.

Gray, who has been teaching most of the sessions, said the kids have a lot of good ideas and the camp was aimed at helping them achieve those goals - even the far-fetched idea of one boy to create a flying car.

"Hey, if he can dream it, we're going to try and make it happen," Gray said.