Center designed to nurture young entrepreneurs

BALTIMORE (Map, News) - At 12, Omar S. Muhammad and his four siblings ran a grocery store out of their family’s basement with his parents’ encouragement and help.

“And I’m trying to pass on the same knowledge to my own daughter now,” he said.

The Morgan State University Entrepreneurial Development and Assistance Center — which Muhammad now heads — hosted a series of events to educate and prepare young students for entrepreneurship. Held throughout the city, these events to emphasize the importance of Entrepreneurship WeekUSA included luncheons, visits from local chief executive officers, workshops and hands-on activities.

Muhammad signed his center on as a program partner because he knows starting youth out early is important.

According to one foundation and sponsor, 41 percent of children ages 9 to 12 said they would like to start their own business.

Julie Williamson, an entrepreneur and owner of A Good Book, her own bookstore in Baltimore, spoke at the Entrepreneurship Week Events at KIPP Academy. She spoke to an audience of 9- to 12-year-olds about the option of starting a business after school.

As for her own entry into entrepreneurship, she said she wasn’t given the choice when she was young.

“I told the students they were very blessed to have been given that choice at such an early age,” she said.

In the past, professors encouraged kids to get good grades and go work for corporate America, Muhammad said. But times have changed, and his program focuses on being creative and taking ideas to the next level. Williamson said she told the students if they wanted to start a business — which many did — to choose something they really loved to do.

“I said ‘don’t go into it for the money only. It takes hard work, motivation and it gets stressful’,” she said.

Julia Baez, student program coordinator for Morgan State’s Southeast Youth Academy, said she hopes the program will really open the students’ eyes to the real world applications and outside-classroom experiences.

“It’s great for them to see — especially for the African-American students — college students that are doing their thing and doing it well,” she said.

kprahlad@baltimoreexaminer.com

Advertisement