Students push entrepreneurship to head of class

Grad student John Noling speaks on behalf of his team’s favorite among the “top 100 entrepreneurial companies.”

11:58 a.m., July 27, 2004--Twenty-five educators enrolled in the University of Delaware’s Master of Arts in Economic Education and Entrepreneurship program gathered Friday, July 23, in a classroom of Alfred Lerner Hall, to present many weeks of entrepreneurial-inspired research to a panel of three seasoned judges. The grad students are enrolled in a two-summer scholarship course offered through the Center for Economic Education and Entrepreneurship.

Drawing from the recent “top 100 entrepreneurial companies” list published in Entrepreneur Magazine, the students, working in teams of three and four, represented their chosen companies with statistics, images and CEO quotes in an effort to win “investment bids” from the panelists.

Companies presented ran the gamut from pioneers in water treatment processes to global direct-mailing enterprisers to legal data-storage ventures. “Bids” were based on a scale that awarded 25 points for creativity, 25 for overall presentation and 50 for in-depth analysis of the company.

After each presentation, the panelists, who included James O’Neill, UD professor of economics; William Major, vice president of commercial lending at Wilmington Trust; and Matt Scarborough, local entrepreneur, shared their impressions and constructive feedback.

The presentations, in addition to providing participants with in-depth knowledge of what it takes to build a successful company, also give them effective strategies for teaching economics and fiscal responsibility when they return to their classrooms this fall.

Offered at UD since 1981, the program, which is designed for both social studies specialists and general kindergarten through grade 12 educators, is the only one of its kind offered in the United States and has earned respect internationally, drawing students from as far away as New Zealand, Singapore, Croatia and Ireland.

“This truly is the only existing program that offers teachers this sort of training,” O’Neill, who directs the program, said.

“The purpose of the degree is not just to give teachers strategies to try out when they return to their classrooms, but to train them to be catalysts for change in improving the quality of economic education, entrepreneurship and financial literacy,” he explained.

“The teachers who attend are talented educators. This program helps them pioneer new ways to teach their students how to adapt to an ever-changing economy.”

Article by Becca Hutchinson
Photo by Kathy F. Atkinson

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