Md. entrepreneurs headed back to the classroom

November 8, 2004
By ANDRÉA MARIA CECIL,
Daily Record Business Writer

The Baltimore office of the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship has a new Entrepreneurs' Council, a volunteer advisory group that will work with the city's public schools.

The organization is made up of area entrepreneurs who want to work with students ages 11 to 18 and teachers certified in the foundation's program.

“We wanted this … because we wanted a way to engage local entrepreneurs who are extremely busy,” said Tricia Granata, executive director of the foundation's Baltimore office. “We wanted to find a way that they could be advisory to us but be involved with the students and teachers through volunteering and mentoring.”

The New York-based foundation aims to teach entrepreneurship to low-income youth so they can “become economically productive members of society” by improving their academic, business, technology and life skills. In addition to Baltimore and Washington, the foundation has programs in Boston, New York and Pittsburgh.

The program is 16 years old, but started in Baltimore last year with the help of a $450,000 grant from the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation. It serves about 14 public schools and more than 700 students in the city, and it works with 19 foundation-trained teachers.

Teachers want help with how to teach investment costs, accounting and other business-related skills, Granata said.

“And these are the things entrepreneurs deal with each day,” she added.

Thus far, there are six members on the council. They are Rick Geritz, chief executive officer of BD Metrics Inc. at University of Maryland, Baltimore County; Mark Grovic, managing director of the New Markets Growth Fund at University of Maryland, College Park; Jason Hardebeck, CEO of WhoGlue Inc. in Baltimore; Chris Nickerson, CEO of TrainingPro in Timonium; Cheryl Thomas, CEO of Genesis Technologies Inc. in Columbia; and Ann Quirk, vice president of M&T Bank.

Although the Baltimore office has worked with older CEOs from larger companies in the past, it wanted to bring in younger ones so student could “envision careers in business,” explained Lawrence Rivitz, chair of the board of advisors.

There is a tremendous amount of opportunity that most young people don't notice, Hardebeck said.

“They're trapped in a place where they don't see a way of getting out,” he said, referring to most of the students' inner-city backgrounds. “I also personally believe that business is one of the best catalysts of improving social conditions of any kind.”

Council members are working with the schools now and hope to grow their membership to between 10 and 20 entrepreneurs.