Project ECHO’s Entrepreneurial Studies Results
It’s exciting for students to participate with Project ECHO over the course of the school year, and encourage their active learning at the myriad of events hosted at UCLA, which both launch the program in the fall and conclude the program in the spring. Students are collectively challenged above and beyond what they may traditionally experience in a high school classroom. There’s no finding answers in a book, citing Wikipedia, or using Google to locate an answer. Project ECHO is designed to encourage students to think critically, solve challenging problems, and develop skills such as oral communication, public speaking, research skills, media literacy, teamwork, planning, self-sufficiency, and goal setting—i.e., skills that will help prepare them for college, modern careers, and adult life.
ECHO teaches ideation through the lens of trying to solve a community-based problem. For our teens, community translates into their school community, their neighborhood, even a school athletic team or academic after school club. Over the course of the program year, students have conducted research on possible products and/or businesses to try and solve this “problem.” They have developed financial budgets, marketing plans, consumer research,and developed a full written business plan, on average 20 – 25 pages. They have maintained a portfolio of findings, created a final product demonstrating their product or service.
The High School Entrepreneurs’ Business Plan Competition is the culminating academic experience for Project ECHO students. The Competition serves as the final opportunity for teens to work together to create a 7-10 minute presentation inclusive of a pitch deck, to present their final product. Judges will spend a couple of minutes asking questions of the team, from how’d they come up with the team name, to more specific questions pertaining to profit and loss statements.
Though Project ECHO awards cash prizes to the winning teams, those who have received the highest scores on both their written business plans and on their presentations, ECHO celebrates every team for seeing their project through completion.
ECHO is proud of each and every team, and we’re delighted to share some examples of written business plans and various presentations.