The Burton D. Morgan Foundation is taking significant steps towards making Northeast Ohio a hub for entrepreneurship. The foundation recently awarded $482,000 in grants to various organizations, including the
Akron Urban League,
BioEnterprise,
Entrepreneurial Engagement Ohio and others that are dedicated to promoting entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship education throughout the region.
“The mission of the foundation is to strengthen the free enterprise system,” explains Deborah Hoover, President and CEO of the foundation. “We provide grants to organizations that support entrepreneurship education and activity among youth, college, students and adults, primarily in Northeast Ohio.”
The
Austen BioInnovation Institute in Akron aims to accomplish just that with their $50,000 grant to support internships in 2012-13 for graduate-level students to assist with assessment, development, and commercialization of novel biomedical technologies. The Hudson-based foundation also renewed their support for
Lemonade Day, which targets young people and exposes them to entrepreneurship, granting $20,000 to support the 2013 effort.
According to the foundation's website, “Lemonade Day is a free, community-wide program dedicated to teaching children how to start and operate their own business through the simple act of creating and running a lemonade stand."
“This year, more than 1,500 children have participated in the program, creating and operating lemonade stands with the support of a national curriculum design by Prepared4Life, which is based in Houston,” says Hoover, who believes you can never start a career in entrepreneurship too early. “Through Lemonade Day, parents and teachers have become engaged in the larger dialogue around the importance of financial literacy and entrepreneurship education.”
Source: Deborah Hoover
Writer: Joe Baur