Designed for juniors and seniors in high school, EntrePrep immerses the students in entrepreneurship education, business principles and practices. The week-long residential program is organized by the National Council on Economic Education.
“Once the students came up with an idea, they had to come up with a business plan, and then, from the business plan, analyze the debt," said James B. O'Neill, an economics professor and director of UD's Center for Economic Education and Entrepreneurship.
Ebony Peterson, a program participant and New Castle, Del., native who attends Howard High School of Technology, said that the program helps the students by "teaching us the different financial sides about things like credit cards and how to manage money.”
The encouragement the students received from the directors also was a great help, Peterson said. She was selling magazines that she put together herself with various stories and pictures of celebrities.
Cydney Nunn, a senior from Atlanta, Kayla Mond, a senior from Claymont, Del., and Anisha Simpson, a senior from Elsmere, Del., combined forces to create and sell “Bumpin' Buttons,” which they were selling for $3.50 a piece.
The group learned important lessons throughout the week, the most important of which, according to Mond, was that, “Without an organized plan, you have nothing.”
They also learned teamwork, they said, which led them to move in to each others' rooms to work on their business plans until late at night.
Article by Adam Thomas
Photo by J Stewart, AS '09