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Supporting Young Entrepreneurs. Cr e a t i n g St r a t e g i c L e a d e r s The Ryffel Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at the Neeley School of Business supports young entrepreneurs through its Texas Youth Entrepreneur of the Year Award sponsored by KPMG LLP. At their recent awards banquet, high school senior and CEO, Shanetta Drake-Pruitt was the recipient of a $5,000 college scholarship in recognition of her entrepreneurial venture. Five other young entrepreneurial finalists also received $1,000 scholarships. The Neeley School offers comprehensive programs in entrepreneurship at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. ticularly those focusing on minorities. Last year, about 30 percent of the students in the Business Leadership Program decided to enroll at Leeds. The numbers were closer to 20 percent at TCU. The odds aren't quite as good for other programs, par- "Two-thirds will go on to college at the school where they've been to camp. The schools have done the SELECTION process already. They want these kids." —Julian Krinsky, Julian Krinsky Camps and Programs ly at how successful his program has been at keeping the stu- dents in school, period. He notes that everyone who com- pleted camp in the first two years of the program is either still in high school or has gone on to some kind of post-sec- ondary education, which might include technical training in the military. "It's way too soon to know how many will con- tinue on with their studies and get a bachelor's degree, but so far I like what I'm seeing," he says. All these administrators believe that their programs can At Wayne State, Anderson has been looking more broad- be counted as successes even if the participants don't enroll in business school—as long as the students graduate having learned valuable lessons. TCU's Mueller wants kids to leave the program under- standing just how much work it requires to be a successful entrepreneur. "I want them to know how much time they'll need to spend, and what it takes to raise enough money. I want to offer the caveats that make them say, 'Hey, this isn't easy.' I want them to understand what they need to do next to get from here to there. They need to graduate from high school, go to college, maybe go to business school, maybe go to engineering school or law school. They need to real- ize that being an entrepreneur takes time and patience." Says Anderson, "I want the kids in our program to feel good about themselves and feel proud of whatever choices they make. At the end of the day, we all know that access to information is enhanced if you have education. Access to a better standard of living is enhanced if you have education." As all business school administrators know, one of the keys to continuing success is keeping the pipeline of appli- cants full. Summer camp provides an excellent way for schools to interest teenagers in business—and to give them an extremely positive introduction to a particular school's campus and facilities. Once high schoolers see how intrigu- ing business can be, they're more likely to consider b-school their first and best option. ■ z BizEd JULY/AUGUST 2003 51