“I am a serial entrepreneur, on my fourth company, and have started and sold three of the four startups. I also teach entrepreneurship at Kent State University where we have entrepreneurship as a major and minor,” Craig Zamary said.
How the Story begins?
“When my son Connor was in first grade, he wanted to start his own business, create an app and asked for me to help him, just like I do with my students at Kent State” Zamary explained. “Long story short, I guided him through the same process as I do with students at Kent State University and eventually he had it programmed, and he launched it. Connor had to do the work, and if I jumped in, the lesson would be over. He had to own his own path. Connor worked with a programmer and launched an app called Toaster Pop and quickly received national and international recognition.”
Check out Connor pitching investors when he was in the first grade at the Youngstown Business Incubator in Ohio.
Why entrepreneurship should be taught in first grade
As a result of hearing about Connor’s success, Zamary daughter’s teacher asked him to come in and teach kids about entrepreneurship in second grade. He had no idea what to expect, and so he gave lessons, presentations and did activities similar to what he would teach in the university classroom. The results were amazing.
The students were extremely creative and had no fear. “The thought of teaching entrepreneurship to first grade may seem developmentally inappropriate until Craig Zamary walks into the room,” teacher Debbie Spiese said. “I invited Craig into my second grade classroom to share his profession as an entrepreneur and college professor having an acute awareness of 21st century skills my students should possess. Some of these include the ability to problem solve as well as collaborate with others, displaying strong leadership skills and being innovative.”
“I found that the ideas the kids came up with were very creative, inspiring and the students were hungry to launch them,” Zamary added. “I saw first hand, how empowered the second graders became and I realized the importance of exposing young children to entrepreneurship at such an early age. Successful entrepreneurs will tell you, the more you do it the better you get at it. Imagine if kids are exposed to entrepreneurship classes starting in grade one and throughout their school years, how far ahead they will be by the time they reach adulthood.”