The Project Youth Entrepreneurs Surry grant will be funded through the Piedmont Triad Partnership's Transformation Grant program. The program is designed to ensure rural communities and underserved populations are granted opportunities to encourage, develop and implement innovation, entrepreneurship, education and workforce development. The PTP is made possible by the U.S. Department of Labor's Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development grant.
Project Y.E.S. will partner area schools with Surry Community College and Surry County Economic Development Partnership in an effort to encourage more students to become interested in being entrepreneurs. They will also be working with both the Greater Mount Airy Chamber of Commerce and the Yadkin Valley Chamber of Commerce as well as the Business and Workforce Committee and area business owners.
"We hope to connect ninth graders interested in entrepreneurship with local business leaders who are entrepreneurs," said Jill Reinhardt, CTE/technology/media director for Surry County Schools and the individual who headed up the grant application.
"We've always had a tremendous relationship with education in the county and the cities," said Betty Ann Collins, president of the Greater Mount Airy Chamber of Commerce. "We have some of the same concerns and goals, including preparing the young people to enter the workforce. After Jill sat in on some of our committee meetings, she recognized the advantages of partnering. We could take that topic into a program where we can groom, foster and nourish our own entrepreneurs at home."
"We're very much in support of that," added Robin Rhyne, Surry County EDP president. "I'm delighted to see the school systems coming together. There's been a culture shift with this notion of taking the future in our own hands. We're here to offer support and contacts if needed."
"We will provide expertise from the standpoint of the Small Business Center and the Industry Training Center," said Dr. George Sappenfield, associate vice president of corporate and continuing education at SCC. "If we can, we'll help them with class and business counseling and serve on mentoring teams. We will also provide some facilities if we do training of teachers or industry mentors."
Area schools hope to use the grant to help students with the graduation projects they are now required to complete. Those involved in the grant hope that youth will get involved with local business in the community during their freshman year, which will inspire them to become entrepreneurs, pursuing that line with their projects.
"It's a two-fold process," said Reinhardt. "One is the local economic development strategy is to enhance entrepreneurialism here in our county. The other side is that every students has to graduate with a graduation project so we hope to get students interested in a topic early on."
The grant will also provide the opportunity for area businesses to see what is happening within the schools and contribute to the education of area youth. The schools will target those students they feel will be interested in becoming entrepreneurs and partner them with existing entrepreneurs in the county.
"We do that already through our internships, but this will elevate that to the next level," said Larry Davis, career and technical education director at Mount Airy High School. "We can get these students involved with businesses. There are a lot of avenues we can explore in working with these students. I think we can make a tremendous impact."
"It will help students and teachers within the school systems understand who entrepreneurs are," said Barbara Long, CTE director for Elkin City Schools. "It's a way of thinking, of being creative to figure out how to accomplish your goals. Students can go out and have field experience."
Project Y.E.S. is part of a greater movement within the state to promote the existence of entrepreneurs as a way of encouraging economic development across the state. Officials in Surry County who are involved with the grant are excited to get started with the planning phase in order to begin implementing the practices in the schools.
"We're all really excited about it," said Collins. "If they're grown at home, they're more likely to stay at home."
"Jill has laid the plans about what we're all going to be doing," said Davis. "We have to see which students are interested and give them the opportunity to work with some businesses around the area. We want to create a one-on-one match-up with a mentor to capitalize with this grant."
"Everyone has jumped on the entrepreneurial bandwagon," said Sappenfield. "We've talked about the importance of supporting and promoting entrepreneurs. We need to do some more training of entrepreneurs."
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