Increasing Entrepreneurial Self-Efficacy in Youth of Color
Pitch video for Future Bosses developed by our team.
opportunities
As of 2016, over 20% of all entrepreneurs are immigrants. Women of color are starting businesses at an exponential rate: Between 2007 and 2018, the number of Latina-owned companies increased by 172 percent, a bigger increase than any other minority group. And the number of Black women-owned companies rose almost as high, at 164%.
And Durham, North Carolina is the epicenter of it all: The home of Black Wall Street, Durham has a rich history of entrepreneurship and community. But despite how jam-packed the city is with entrepreneurs, a majority of adolescents of color living in Durham still believe that an “entrepreneur” means someone who looks like Elon Musk: a white, middle-aged man in tech.
And the majority of these students reported that they didn’t think they could become entrepreneurs. That’s not surprising: if you don’t actively see anyone who looks like you in the profession you want to pursue, it’s hard to imagine yourself succeeding.
Solution
A team of four other graduate students and I developed “Future Bosses,” a proximity-based AR app and entrepreneur camp for middle and high school students. The app showcases the diversity of Durham entrepreneurs through short, engaging videos. As students see their culture, race, and gender reflected back to them, and participate in project-based learning designed to promote an entrepreneurial mindset, they feel encouraged to see themselves as a “Future Boss.”
Process
To guide the iterative creation of our app, we conducted four weeks of qualitative research with local Durham middle and high schools (where we found out that most 6 through 12th grade students in Durham do not see themselves becoming entrepreneurs), consulted with several local entrepreneurs, and partnered with Beekmarks, a community awareness platform.
Results
We planned to host an all-day entrepreneurial workshop on April 14th with 50+ students from the Emily Krzyzewski Center and 10 local entrepreneurs, including the owner of Cocoa Cinnamon. For the event, we received a $1,700 grant from NC IDEA. The event was going to include an entrepreneurial scavenger hunt, a pitch competition with prizes, a design thinking workshop, and talks from the entrepreneurs.
Unfortunately, because of COVID-19, we postponed our event until the summer. To support our mission in the meantime, we refined our facilitator’s toolkit for educators, parents, and community leaders interested in hosting their own Future Bosses event.
The positive impact Future Bosses has had on our target learners so far is shown on the left. We plan on publishing all Future Bosses data after our entrepreneurial workshop event, in Summer 2020.
Founders, Inc.: An Entrepreneurial Field Guide for Kids
purpose
Because our event was postponed due to COVID-19, my teammate Daisy Magnus-Aryitey and I created an entrepreneurial field guide, called “Founders, Inc.” to mail to our participants. We wanted to give our participants something fun and educational to do during the pandemic, something that would help them develop a sense of entrepreneurial self-efficacy. This field guide’s goal is to introduce readers to entrepreneurial concepts.
role
Interviewed several entrepreneurs for features, developed the entrepreneurial word search, co-created and edited layout, and proofed all articles.
RESULTS
The magazine is available below.
