This year, North Fork High School teacher Clara Pena used her advanced multimedia
class to introduce a pilot program for young entrepreneurs, using a curriculum developed by Homegrown Pathways, a nonprofit aimed at empowering rural students.
“I have 15 incredible, creative students who I thought would be perfect,” said Pena,
“especially while this is still kind of in the pilot mode. I thought it would be fun for us to
try it. I really like when students work on projects that have some kind of real -world
outcome. So whether that is producing a film or creating a podcast or printing a t -shirt
or doing this where they create an idea from start to finish and get real funding for their
idea. I think it's so powerful and like memorable for the students and I think it It's
projects like these that really do kind of like spark those next steps.”
The 10th to 12th grade students pitched a variety of projects, including three that are
already up and running: a cleaning business run by Sydney Palmer, a photography
business headed by Anja Ullman, and a hot sauce company.
Grey Branum talked about his fledgling endeavor. “I'm planning on starting a hot sauce
business with my father, Chris Geyer, and I'm pretty excited for this. It's a great
opportunity. The money I get from my business, I plan on using for college. I want to
major in astronomy, probably astrophysics, and I'd get a minor in art.”
Anja Ullman wants to build on her photography work. “I've done volunteer photo shoots
for family and friends before, but this program has given me the opportunity to push it
and turn it more into a future career pathway,” she said.
Remy Virani Pliner wants to help people plan their interior spaces, saying, “I’ve always
really loved walking into a beautifully decorated space and I just think that helping
people live in a pretty or more comfortable environment is just a worthy goal for a future
career path.”
Kacee Daguerre had an unusual project. “We're starting a group in the school called the
Out the Door Gang and we're trying to get a thousand dollars to be able to get kids
outdoors for free because I, whenever it started out, I couldn't afford to go out so I felt
bad. I'm like, students should be able to do that, working through the Nature Connection, which I work as a student ambassador. I don't have any active businesses or anything I want to do except for the Nature Connection. Nature Connection's a big part of my life.”
Based on two-minute pitches from the students, three judges, including Delta County
Superintendent of Schools Caryn Gibson, allotted about $7,500 in seed money. Spark
Lab founder Colin Lacy presided over the awards.
“I grew up here on the Western Slope,” said Lacy. “I'm a graduate of Ridgeway High
School and I've been leading entrepreneurial and career pathway work for about 15 years nationally. I moved my family back here about 12 years ago and had always wanted to bring back work that I was doing nationally. There's limited opportunities for young
people to explore entrepreneurial passions and interests and especially to receive direct
support To be able to develop those ideas, those concepts, whether that's through
entrepreneurship or a social nonprofit venture. And that became the seeds for
Homegrown Pathways and for Spark Lab in particular as a youth pre -accelerator model.”
Lacy said this is the first year “we're running the program during the regular school day
embedded within classes within Delta County Schools, Montrose County Schools, and
the Ridgeway districts. So this is a special moment for us — this morning had our pitch
event at Olathe High School.”
After saying encouraging and complimentary things to each of the students, Lacy had a
special announcement.
“So Kacee, you pitched for $1,000 to support access for students regardless of their
financial circumstances to be able to enjoy and learn through outdoor programs run by
the Nature Connection,” said Lacy from the stage. “We weren't able to get to $1 ,000
specifically, but with Superintendent Gibson's leadership and with funding through the
Western Slope Schools Career Collaborative, rather than provide $1,000 in funding for
needs -based outdoor experiences for youth, we will be providing $18,000.”
Kacee also received $500 for his project support, planning and outreach to other students.
