STERLING, Va., March 27, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Dominion High School marketing students will graduate in June with training in entrepreneurship. Starting in April and finishing at the end of May, the students in Sandra Tucker's business and marketing class will complete 15 sessions of The Lemonhead Movement's entrepreneurship program based on the thirteen principles in "The Lemonade Stand" book by Ara Bagdasarian and Nick Gustavsson.
Tucker ordered the books and "Lemon Lessons" workbooks after searching for tools to support her desire to provide students with a foundation in entrepreneurship training. As the marketing teacher and DECA sponsor at Dominion High School she wants to prepare students for success when they graduate and stated, "Entrepreneurship is a critical element in understanding the basic foundation of business for our high school marketing students. Entrepreneurial concepts translate beautifully into understanding the basics of any profession. Teaching students the value of small business ownership develops an understanding of what our society needs to create a stable economy, which will ultimately benefit us all."
Tucker's launch of The Lemonade Stand curriculum follows Governor Bob McDonnell's announcement declaring 2012 as "The Year of the Entrepreneur" in the state of Virginia and the continued debate covered in The Wall Street Journal about whether entrepreneurship can be taught.
Student's sessions will include classroom instruction, individual activities, experiential learning, group projects and a guest speaker. One component of The Lemonade Stand curriculum provides access to entrepreneurial speakers from members of The Loudoun Lemonhead Council. The council is a volunteer group of highly experienced, successful entrepreneurs and business executives organized to help local entrepreneurs start, grow, and succeed in their ventures. Any educator can submit a form to request volunteer guest speakers for their classroom while teaching the curriculum.
Author and entrepreneur Nick Gustavsson said, "When evaluating the current pain points for educators teaching entrepreneurship, teachers indicated they wanted to have more access to real-life entrepreneurs to interact with students. We thought that providing access to a group of highly exceptional and successful business people that want to support this mission would be a fantastic addition to the in-class instruction."
The Lemonade Stand curriculum was created to fill the need for more programs to empower and inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs. This type of education gained momentum in the 1960s, and by 1985, more than 250 entrepreneurship courses have been created at colleges throughout the country, according to the Kauffman Foundation. The number of entrepreneurship programs at colleges and universities has grown exponentially over the past decade, and high school students interested in business can start studying entrepreneurship best practices in preparation for their undergraduate studies through The Lemonade Stand program. The students at Dominion High School will receive a certificate in "Entrepreneurship Principles" when they complete The Lemonade Stand course.
About The Lemonhead Movement:
The Lemonhead Movement started from two entrepreneurs' desire to encourage entrepreneurship and provide their personal expertise to aspiring entrepreneurs through the thirteen principles detailed in The Lemonade Stand book. The goal is simple: teach the principles of The Lemonade Stand to as many entrepreneurs as possible - and energize them to be successful. To achieve this, the Lemonhead Movement gives away one copy of The Lemonade Stand for every copy purchased. These LemonDrops are distributed at unemployment centers, graduations, job fairs, school business contests and other places where lemons need some serious squeezing. The Lemonhead Movement also provides free curriculum for high school and colleges to teach entrepreneurship. The Lemon Lessons program is another component of the mission of The Lemonhead Movement to "lower unemployment one entrepreneur at a time." Twitter: @lemonheadsrule
Source: The Lemonhead Movement
