A curriculum designed to inspire young entrepreneurs which began at the University of Rochester in 2004 is now expanding internationally.
The Young Entrepreneurs Academy (YEA!) will launch its first program in Mumbai, India this year.
Founder and CEO Gayle Jagel said Namita Thapar, CFO and Executive Board member of Emcure Pharmaceuticals, Ltd, and founder of Incredible Ideas Ltd, read about the program in the New York Times last year decided to bring it to India.
"This population of students have a very different life experience and will bring a very different perspective to entrepreneurship education, so we're very excited to see the results," Jagel said.
The Young Entrepreneurs Academy guides middle and high school students through the process of starting and running a business or a social movement. The curriculum is offered in 103 school districts or other locations across the U.S.
Jagel said students enrolled in the program over the past eleven years have demonstrated why young people are particularly suited for this kind of study.
"I think students, young people, have inherently less aversion to risk because they have less to lose and young people tend to have a more 'anything is possible' attitude."
YEA! is a nonprofit organization, but its model operates like a franchise. Its partners in India will receive the program curriculum, schedule and materials to start educating students at the American School of Bombay in Mumbai and the Shri Ram School in Delhi in August. They hope to eventually expand to 50 locations across India.
