Funding Awards Announced for Young Entrepreneurs Through Region’s First High School Venture Fund
TOLEDO, Ohio – Northwest Ohio’s future leaders achieved their first milestone as young entrepreneurs this morning when an announcement was made at the Regional Growth Partnership (RGP) annual meeting to fully fund each of their startup ventures.
Under the region’s first-ever high school venture fund, students from Northview High School summarized their respective business plans to create new companies, including their missions, goals and funding requests, before learning of their awards.
The announcement came from RGP President Steve Weathers, who credited the students for developing an entrepreneurial mindset that is necessary for starting and operating a business.
“The idea of this program is to instill a sense of entrepreneurism in our young leaders,” said Weathers, who noted that the venture fund was created entirely from private money, using no public tax dollars. “We want to give them an opportunity to create a for-profit company so they have real-life experience on what it takes to run a business.”
The high school venture fund was initiated and funded by the RGP, with additional financial support from the Sylvania Improvement Corporation.
While the RGP served as a catalyst for the venture fund, Weathers praised the Sylvania School District and the Sylvania business community for supporting the idea and providing mentorship to the budding entrepreneurs.
Sylvania Schools Superintendent Brad Rieger said the district’s mission goes beyond classrooms and textbooks. “In today’s global economy, we realize the need to expand our traditional ways of teaching and to explore innovative programs that provide our students with the skills and training to enter a global marketplace,” he said.
Additional support for the program came from Michael Temple, president of Temple Development in Sylvania, who volunteered his time as executive director, serving as an advisor and coordinator of the program.
As the process moved forward at Northview, five business plans emerged from students who followed the same course as any new entrepreneur, including presenting their business plans to a venture fund group, comprised of their high school peers.
“We know that it is the entrepreneurial spirit that drives small businesses which account for the vast majority of our workforce. This program is a wonderful learning tool that will help instill that spirit in our students through hands-on, real-life experiences,” said Northview instructor Sue Briddell.
The high school venture proposals, the students involved with each business and a brief description, include:
• Bumps (Greg Holshoe, Andrew Neuman) – Creating customized, personal bumper stickers
• CM Discounts (Chris Markho, Mike Slomka) – Facilitate the sale of merchandise on eBay
• LASCO (Laura Easterwood, Austin Hendrix, Samantha Jerabek) – Manufacture and sell ladder golf sets to Sylvania community
• Uptown Shop-Around (Caitlin Berman, Jamie Hamilton) – Personal shopping business
• Wild Wonders (Magan Gerding, Monica Betz) – Creating specialty goodies A long-term goal, according to Weathers, is to not only continue the program in Sylvania, but to broaden the venture fund to every high school in northwest Ohio The Regional Growth Partnership is a private nonprofit development corporation dedicated to fostering local, national and international economic growth opportunities for Northwest Ohio.