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Entrepreneur Jason Ryan Dorsey, 27, challenges students at Pinckney High School to work toward their dreams. He was invited by the Livingston Educational Service Agency and Washtenaw Community College.Learning
Business dreams get a kick-start
Motivational talk, Livingston and Washtenaw programs guide students down entrepreneurial path.
"There are so many young people today who need to believe in a future they can achieve," Dorsey says. "I'm here to tell you what it takes to prepare for success in the real world. Life's not fair, but you control how you deal with it."
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PINCKNEY -- In jeans and blue-striped shirt, Jason Ryan Dorsey, 27, told several hundred Livingston County students that they're in charge of their own destiny.
"There are so many young people today who need to believe in a future they can achieve," Dorsey said.
"I'm here to tell you what it takes to prepare for success in the real world. Life's not fair, but you control how you deal with it."
The Livingston Educational Service Agency, in collaboration with Washtenaw Community College, asked the author to kick off their young entrepreneurs' campaign at Pinckney High School this month. And there's a method to the madness of the campaign's odd moniker, which is RU1/7? -- meaning, 'Are you one of the seven?'
Aveia Morris, tech prep articulation coordinator for WCC, said seven out of 10 high school students want to run their own businesses. The campaign informs students about entrepreneurship classes at Livingston County high schools and WCC.
LESA and WCC are using a $125,000 grant from the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Growth to promote business development among high school students in Livingston and Washtenaw counties.
Technical education students in dozens of disciplines -- child care, food preparation, computer-aided design, business information systems, accounting, auto repair and more -- attended the RU1/7? kickoff.
The students came from Brighton, Fowlerville, Hartland, Howell and Pinckney high schools. Organizers hoped to get students thinking about their technical skills in an entrepreneurial fashion.
Danielle Palermo, 17, a Hartland senior who is taking her third year of advanced auto repair as well as a class in marketing, said, "I don't want to start a business that fixes cars.
"But I'd love to market a car dealership. I never put it together before."
In June, a group of seven Livingston County and three Washtenaw County teachers met with Bonnie Riutta, former Brighton Area Schools assistant superintendent for curriculum who is now a consultant.
She served as a facilitator for the educators to create an entrepreneurship curriculum for high school students.
The group recommended a list of basic entrepreneurial skills to be taught in every career technical education class in county high schools.
Students who complete both a technical skills class in any discipline and the entrepreneurship class would be eligible to take a three-credit Advanced Placement WCC entrepreneurship class called "Student Enterprise Zone."
That class can be taken as part of a nine-credit Entrepreneurship Certification at the college as well as toward an associate's degree in business.
Evan Hill, 16, a Hartland High School drafting student who attended the RU1/7? event in Pinckney, wants to own a building company.
"I don't know how right now, but I'll find out sometime," Hill said. "Jason's speech was motivational to get everyone thinking about what they can do. You don't have limitations. Everyone can do it."
Hartland High teachers Nathan Oake and Jamie Riley are offering an entrepreneurship class this year. Penny Ventrone and Cas Scranton at Pinckney High School will offer the class next year, and Tim Olszewski at Howell High School offers the course as independent study to Howell and Brighton students.
Fowlerville High won't offer the entrepreneurship class because the school doesn't have a marketing teacher, but students will have access to the concepts through the Livingston Applied Technology Education Consortium classes available through LESA.
"In the old days, kids could drop out of high school and go get a middle-class job. I know people who dropped out of school who ended up with a home, two cars, a boat and a place up north," said Kevin Hill, culinary arts instructor at Howell High. "Those days are gone. There needs to be an alternative somewhere. One of the ways we can grow ourselves out of this dilemma is the spirit of entrepreneurship."
Linda Theil is a Metro Detroit freelance writer.
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