So, let's say that I'm a 18 year old high school student and interested in making a few extra bucks on the side. What are my options? 1) Part-time job in fast-food? 2) Working at my dad's office? 3) Babysitting my neighbor's 7 year old son? 4) Mowing my neighbor's grass (provided that it is during spring or summer)? 5) Collecting money for writing about something that I enjoy?

Hmmm, Number 1 I've tried before and didn't like, #2 is very boring, #3 I can't stand b/c I don't like the 7 year old, and #4 is of interest but its winter and grass doesn't grow this time off year.

Hmmm, #5. Maybe I should explore. But how do I make money on posting information about something that I like? Well, let's say that you are really into cars. So much so, that you can rattle off features, models, and designs of any major auto distributor. Why not make a web page about cars or, better yet, create a blog that does nothing but communicate with other car enthusiasts about cars?

So how to make money? Try Adsense. Google's ad feature allows you to create blogs and webpages and have Google find the advertisers for your site. Advertisers see the relevant content of your page and decide to advertise their product or service. You simply collect the ad payment each month.

Now, you must also take into account the fact that your site must be attractive to others and they must know about your site. You must also update your content frequently.

But- the upside is, as a 18 year old, the chance for you to create a business and write about something that you enjoy- and even maybe get paid in the process- is priceless.

These are just some of the ideas we are exploring at our high school (CATEC) that allows students to own their education and prepare them for 21st century careers.

Check out www.catec.org to find out more.

Entrepreneurship in Secondary Ed? Are we talking about a lemonade stand or a lawnmower service? These would have been two ideas that I would have thought of when I was in high school in the mid 80's, but times are certainly changing. The millennials are changing the nature of business ownership and creating operations as anonymous CEO's behind the cover of their computer monitors. Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Chen and Shawn Fanning may not be household names to you and me but they have created a market shift with their creations of Facebook, You Tube, and Napster- all while they were in their early 20's.

The lemonade stand has gone high tech and collaborative exchanging of ideas through blogging and social networking has created ways to exchange ideas and to collaborate in ways that were once done face to face.

Having a student understand and create a practical business plan in the area of their particular interest has great potential. After speaking with many key educators and business professionals that have background in this area, it is clear that while the business plan and process are important, it is the creative thinking and idea creation/sharing that is essential to a good start. Not only that, but many have advised me to put less focus whether or not an idea comes to fruition, and instead, focus on giving students the skills and tools to explore and FAIL as part of their experiences. (I was advised that real entrepreneurs don't necessarily spend months crafting a plan- they actually DO the plan and learn along the way)

Ideally we like to think that there is an entrepreneurial spirit in all of us. Most adults, however, have made decisions in life to not explore self-employment (while that number is steadily increasing) for a variety of reasons. I recently read a study that indicated that more entrepreneurs come from families where they were exposed to parent(s) who operated or ran their own business. This gives credit to the notion that entrepreneurs are made, not necessarily born. There certainly is a drive and passion in those that have succeeded, and I believe that if we infuse this spirit and skill set into our teenagers' curricula, we will have provided them the opportunity to experiment, fail, grow, learn, prosper, own, organize, critically think, manage, be engaged, be prepared.

The new lemonade stand just began to look a little sweeter. Stay tuned.....

60 Minutes recently did a report on the changing workforce and how the climate and culture of work sites is shifting due to the infusion of Millennials, people born between the years of 1980 to 1995. (check out video at http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/i_video/main500251.shtml?id=3486473n ) If you compute the math, the age range of these individuals now is between 12 and 27. Millennials, around 79 million strong, now outnumber the Baby Boomers, estimated between 60-70 million. As baby boomers begin to retire and exit the workforce, they are being replaced by this new type of worker who grew up in an environment far different than what older generations were exposed to.

While careful not to make a hasty generalization, how is this new breed of workers different from past generations? For one they are more tech savvy. It took 40 years for electricity to enter adoption by 25% of US households. Compare that to the 13 years for US cell phone adoption and 5 years for broadband. Access has surpassed assets as to what creates value for many businesses today. Millennials learned how to multi-task much earlier than previous generations with the wide ranges of techno gismos and tools available today.

[More]