Students

Bakersfield, California, college students participate in an Extreme Enterpreneurship Tour event to learn how free enterprise can power dreams

Lauren Cronk doesn’t have her own business yet. But the bubbly 19-year-old hopes to one day turn her entrepreneurial dreams into reality.

Cronk, a sophomore in business administration at Bakersfield College in California, is president of her college’s business club, Students in Free Enterprise. She plans to blend her interest in sports management and marketing into her own business someday. “I am a sports fanatic. I’ve been coaching since I was 16. And I’ve always loved business. To combine the two would be amazing,” she says.

Cronk and her fellow Students in Free Enterprise are among the next generation of small business owners and entrepreneurs that the U.S. Chamber is reaching out to as part of its American Free Enterprise. Dream Big. campaign. The Chamber and its public policy think tank, the National Chamber Foundation (NCF), has teamed up with several like-minded organizations to educate students about the critical role of small business and the American free enterprise system in job creation and to foster their entrepreneurial aspirations.

“For years, Washington has been trying to crack the code for activating a young audience,” says NCF Executive Vice President and former U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings. “By reaching out to them, the business community is making young entrepreneurs part of the solution to meet our challenge of creating 20 million jobs in the next 10 years.”

Chamber Increases Presence on College Campuses

The Chamber’s youth outreach includes a partnership with the Extreme Entrepreneurship Tour (EET), which brings the country’s top young entrepreneurs to colleges, universities, workforce development organizations, chambers of commerce, small business development centers, and many other organizations for half-day, high-energy events to spread the entrepreneurial mind-set. Participants learn real-life business lessons from successful young entrepreneurs, participate in workshops that facilitate viable business ideas based on a person’s strengths and passions, and engage in speed networking to connect with other participants who share their business ideas.

“Many students aren’t aware of capitalism and free enterprise and how it works,” says Michael Simmons, CEO and co-founder of the EET. “In many schools, business is a bad word.” An April 2009 Rasmussen poll found that young voters are essentially equally divided on whether socialism or capitalism is a superior economic system. According to that poll, 33% of adults under 30 said socialism was a better system, while just 37% said they prefer capitalism. The remaining respondents were undecided.

But Simmons argues that business is the “ultimate win-win when it’s done right.”

To bolster the EET, the Chamber’s Campaign for Free Enterprise provides materials, including T-shirts, bags, pens, and brochures outlining the crucial role of education in job creation and the benefits of the free enterprise system in the building of America. With the Chamber’s support, the tour will be able to reach more schools in larger markets and build credibility, Simmons says.

In April, the EET stopped at Bakersfield College. Cronk attended the event to “learn more about that first step of turning an idea into reality.”

Partnership Brings Chamber Into High Schools

The Chamber is also building a greater understanding and appreciation of free enterprise in high schools through collaboration with Junior Achievement. In the JA Be Entrepreneurial program, volunteers teach high school students fundamental business and economic concepts and challenge them to start their own ventures while still in high school. The Chamber and the NCF are calling on small businesses to volunteer for the five-to-eight week program at one of Junior Achievement’s 129 local offices.

“Junior Achievement and the Chamber have the same mission when it comes to education. The real intent of the partnership is to foster the spirit of entrepreneurship among kids,” says Jack Kosakowski, Junior Achievement executive vice president and chief operating officer. “Anyone can write a curriculum on how to start a business, but the inspiration from the folks that have actually done it is what really breathes life into the curriculum.”

Volunteers discover that they can make a difference in a student’s life, Kosakowski says. While in high school, he was involved in a similar JA program. “There was a volunteer businessperson who took an interest in me. I was the first kid in my family to get a college education, and it all happened because of this JA experience and this person who took the time to work with me.”

Governors

Six governors gathered at the U.S. Chamber on May 3 to discuss state policies that spur job creation.

A new study released by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce shows which policies at the state level—and which states themselves—are the most successful in creating new jobs and economic growth.

The Enterprising States study prepared by The Praxis Group for the Chamber’s public policy think tank, the National Chamber Foundation (NCF), found that states and localities are better suited than the federal government at spurring job growth. Those that pursue policies based on free enterprise principles fare better economically than those that don’t.

“By embracing many of the strategies at the core of our free enterprise system—entrepreneurship, open trade, competitive tax rates—states can help jump-start our economic recovery and create more jobs,” said Chamber President and CEO Tom Donohue.

The study looks at five specific policy strategies that states have used and are using to accelerate growth and create jobs: entrepreneurship and innovation, exports and international trade, infrastructure investment, education and training, and taxes and regulation.

The top overall performers, based on job growth rates, gross state product measures, and personal income growth are, in order, North Dakota, Virginia, South Dakota, Maryland, Wyoming, New York, Texas, Iowa, Nebraska, and Montana. The study also ranks the top 10 states in each of the five strategies.

The Enterprising States study was released at a bipartisan summit of governors, state chamber executives, and business leaders at Chamber headquarters on May 3. Participating governors were Tim Pawlenty (R-MN), Jack Markell (D-DE), Bill Richardson (D-NM), Donald Carcieri (R-RI), Rick Perry (R-TX), and Joe Manchin(D-WV).

“By bringing this bipartisan group of governors together, the Chamber is helping lead the charge in finding a solution to our nation’s challenge of creating jobs and revitalizing the economy,” said Pawlenty, co-chair of the event.

The study is available at www.FreeEnterprise.com.