Dear Service-Learning
Friends:
A high school student
with a big heart and no job upon graduation is a problem. See today's New York Times article
entitled, More Young Americans Out of High School Are Also Out of
Work (by Catherine Rampell, Businesssection B - page 1 ).
Also, if you get a
chance, please read the article by Steve Mariotti in Time Magazine on June
1. The title of the article is,"Why Every School in America Should Teach
Entreprneurship." The article can be found here: http://business.time.com/contributor/steve-mariotti/.
Mariotti, founder of the
Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE), was the keynote speaker at
the SAGE World Cup in Buffalo last summer (see http://sageglobal.org; I
am the SAGE Founder). Mariotti is a leader in the area of youth enterprise, and
on this topic (like most others), he and I are in complete agreement.
When youth have a proper context to apply math, technology, communication, and
yes, even science, skills, they are unbelievably motivated and enthused.
Entrepreneurship brings out the creativity and energy of youth. But, as most of
us would agree, most high school teachers and professors are quite risk-averse
(an understatement, methinks!).
A university student
with a big heart and no job and big debt after graduation is another
problem. Though a long-term advocate of service-learning, I am beginning
to morph into an even bigger advocate of social entrepreneurship.
Last week, I saw an
article that the Federal Capital Territory in Nigeria is making
entrepreneurship education mandatory in all of its secondary schools. http://allafrica.com/stories/201205180575.html
. Nigeria, you say? Yes. For three out of the last four years, Nigeria has WON
the SAGE World Cup.
Should the U.S. do the
same? After all, the #1 degree at U.S. universities is BUSINESS. What are
your thoughts?
Sincerely,
Curt DeBerg
SAGE Founder
Professor, California
State University, Chico
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