By Felicia Newchurch,Guardian Features Reporter

The Farm Road Urban Renewal Project and the Centre for Entrepreneurship joined forces to educate the children of Farm Road about the concept of starting and running a successful business through a summer camp, currently in its second week.

The summer programme, which began July 5, includes children from ages 11 to 18. Upon completion of the programme the students will graduate during a ceremony that will be held at the College of The Bahamas, July 16.

As she referred to working with the students from Farm Road, assistant programme director Jenny Gibson said, "It's a privilege and it's also a challenge. It's exciting to see that a lot of them knew nothing about business, but as they got into it, they became more excited about it."

Ms Gibson feels that, if students gain a positive attitude towards their experience in the programme, the outcomes will be rewarding. She expressed how she enjoyed the opportunity to work along with the children and, given the opportunity, she would want to take part in a project like this again. "They have to put what they've learnt into practice, and it requires discipline, so they just need to stay focus," she said.

Charaliese Bevans-Johnson, another assistant director of the programme, said, "I was very impressed when they first came into the camp, because they were very enthusiastic, and so very bright." She said while people were complaining about the nation's youth, saying that all hope was lost, these youngsters were interested in learning about getting a business started, and a few them already had an idea of operating a business.

Ms Bevans-Johnson said, "It made me feel so good inside to know that we have kids like these are going up to the next level; and that's what gives me such fulfillment in teaching them." She said that the children were eager to learn, and this alone pleased her.

The 20 students who are participating in the programme visited The Guardian yesterday for a tour that took them through the steps of producing a newspaper. The interested young budding entrepreneurs asked a series of questions throughout the entire tour showing amazement when they learnt some facts about the production process.

The co-ordinator of the project and senior business development officer of the Centre for Entrepreneurship, Raymond Oriakhi, outlined the three goals of the programme. He said the programme's purpose was to teach these students better business concepts, foster better decisions about going to college and groom them to be better employees or employers to prepare them for the world of work.

Simone Thurston, an 11th grader, said she was interested in the programme and aspired to own her own accounting firm when she completes school. She said, "The programme is teaching me more facts about entrepreneurship and how to own my own business."

Another student, Ghandi Sherman, said, "I like how they are teaching us to be young entrepreneurs and how to own our own business." Sherman said when she completes school, her next step would be to go to college and study cosmetology.

11th grader Jarvonne Clarke also shared his plans for the future. He said learning new things about starting a business was interesting to him. He aspires to be an architect and enjoys his mathematics, science and technical drawing classes.

The children were selected by the Farm Road Urban Renewal Project, which also covered the costs of the programme, while the teachers and the itinerary were provided by the Centre of Entrepreneurship.

Already, the group has visited the Bahamas Development Bank and is scheduled to visit Atlantis, Paradise Island, and the College of The Bahamas to be further enlightened on the concepts of operating a business.

Although the camp will end this week, the programme will continue in September as an after-school venture into business education. The students will be expected to participate in the programme for three hours a week. When the programme is completed, students will be required to submit a business plan as a part of a competition. The winning plan will be submitted for entry into an international competition by the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship based in New York.

The students will also be given the opportunity to take an exam and enroll in an online course worth 3 credits.