Spotlight shines on District 15 young entrepreneurs

Budding student entrepreneurs from Palatine Township Elementary District 15 and the local chamber of commerce recently received recognition for a special program.

District 15 Deputy Superintendent Matthew Barbini led a presentation at a meeting last week lauding the Palatine Area Chamber of Commerce's Young Entrepreneurs Academy. Similar to other suburban chambers, Palatine's entrepreneurs program teaches middle and high school students how to launch and run their own real businesses.

Barbini said the District 15 students in the chamber's entrepreneur academy are preparing well for a global knowledge economy by gaining skills including critical thinking, accessing and analyzing information, persistence and problem solving.

"They are innovators," Barbini said of the Young Entrepreneurs Academy students. "They are business owners, and they will shape the future by relentlessly pursuing what's made this nation so special in terms of the American dream."

Community partnerships such as the one between District 15 and the chamber are important, Barbini said, because local business people work alongside the families and schools to help students master the necessary skills to become successful.

Palatine Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Steven Gaus was accompanied by about a dozen students at the District 15 school board session. Gaus referred to the students as chief executive officers who work with Palatine-area business leaders.

"You begin as a student, you finish as a CEO," Gaus said. "It's a fun and exciting class that guides our middle school students through the process of starting their own real business or nonprofit organization."