3A- My Entrepreneurship Story

Some of my first and long-lasting exposure to entrepreneurship has been through the efforts of my mom. For context, my family as a whole has moved a handful of times throughout my life, and each time, my younger sister and I always worked to adjust to a new school environment. My mom used to stay at home with us when we were younger; however, once my family moved after my second-grade year to North Carolina, the independence and responsibility that my sister and I felt having to adapt made us grow up quite a bit. 

Seeing the shift in attitudes and looking to balance her kids’ new independence with being able to support us when need be, my mom began to work closely with our new school in order to create a role for herself. School policy was to enforce the notion of uniforms, so the slight individuality that each student brought to school had to come from our accessories, even if they had to usually be our school colors as well. Within the first year of being in this new school, she created a school store, selling navy blue and evergreen green shoelaces, bows, pins, stickers, hair ties, and anything else the kids could think up that was within the guidelines of the uniform policy. 

Then, my second year at this school, my mom decided to hand off the school store to the PTA, wanting to work more directly with students and the content she saw my sister and I come home with every day. It was through this desire that she was able to create a tutoring-like support service within the school, working with those that were struggling with math and/or reading, particularly if they were also enrolled within E.S.L. as well. Combining the skill in which she taught both her children along with the motherly instinct to provide the right balance of support and guidance, both she and her students were able to thrive, seeing strong results over the remainder of our time within North Carolina. 

Now, after two family moves later, my mom is now a teacher in my old school district working with standard seventh grade English students. Her passion for people, and especially children, has allowed her to build up from an entrepreneur to now being an innovator within a traditional school setting. Each time I call to check in on her, she always has a new statistic that demonstrates her student’s improvement and understanding. She has been awarded “Rookie of the Year” for her school and many of her new teaching mechanisms have been adopted by others within the school and district. I am immensely proud to have watched her utilize her gift and passions to better others. 

As to why I enrolled in ENT, I love the electives in the Business School and wanted to explore all my options. I have heard great things about it and wanted to be able to have the experience of taking ENT 3003. Beyond that, it is a good pairing with Finance.