Student Sharks: South Austin Schools Debut Entrepreneur Program

Kindergarten isn’t just about learning to share anymore.

South Austin Public Schools are now teaching students how to rule the business world, according to an Austin Independent School District.

On Tuesday the school district unveiled the Crockett student entrepreneurship program, the first K-12 entrepreneurship program in the United States.In the program students will start learning the necessary skills to start and run a business as early as elementary school, according to a news release from the district.

By the time students end their junior year, they will have partnered with Austin entrepreneurs and funders who promote, critique and support them as they create products or businesses.

How does this program work? By modeling the classroom after a “micro society,” reported KUT.

In Cunningham Elementary students from each grade run different types of businesses. Each grade is part of the micro society, and each business helps students learn different life skills such as communicating with others. When students get to middle school, the micro society gets a little more advanced, with a mayor, city manager and radio station.

“It’s more being social than bringing out textbooks and going through a page and doing work,” sixth grader Gauge Villareal told KUT.

By the time high school rolls around, students will start applying skills they have learned to create a real business and compete for investments. Juniors will pitch their ideas to investors, much like the TV show ”Shark Tank.”

The program is all about preparing students for the real world.

“Kids today want to see why they’re learning what they’re learning,” Crockett High School Principal Craig Shapiro told KUT. “They get to practice soft skills and still learn all of the TEKS required by the state, but do it in such a way now that they’re now performance[-based], instead of just taking a test and getting a grade back and forth.”

The Bazaarvoice Foundation provided the initial funding for the Crockett entrepreneurship program, according to the district press release.