My entrepreneurship story comes from the job that I have had
for the last four years. I work at a county recreation center in which I am a
camp counselor and coach to just over two hundred kids age 5-13. When I started
in early 2014 the center offered only 4 sports leagues: flag football, soccer,
basketball, and cheerleading. In my eyes that was not enough, so like an
entrepreneur I conceptualized more ideas to offer more options throughout the
school year. So I began to offer a floor hockey league, the first and only in
the county, as well as a whiffle ball league. Over the last few years I have
grown the floor hockey league to include nearly 100 participants. This has
become the most populated league in the county and I find it very rewarding
when the parents compliment my effort and execution. Also starting from
nothing, the whiffle ball league now involves between 50 and 60 participants.
After those two leagues hit the ground running I wanted to continue innovating
and the following school years created a handball league as well as a golf
instruction course. Handball, although not very popular in the United States,
has become very popular with our students and involves nearly 75 participants
and continues to grow every year. Lastly just last school year I began to offer
golf instruction. Although this is league is faced with the most limitations
because we don’t have a golf course, it was still very successful as I enjoyed
teaching 15 fourth and fifth grade students and expect to expand this school
year.
I
enrolled in this class because entrepreneurship has always been an interesting
concept to me. I think of myself as a problem solver and I believe that this
course can help me view the world in different ways in order to help enhance my
problem solving skills. Another idea that goes hand in hand with
entrepreneurship is being your own boss. I hope to learn things that I never
thought would be an opportunity until I joined this class.
Ryan - thanks for sharing your entrepreneurship story. Sports is a great motivator and builder for kids. I appreciate your effort to grow sports and deliver more options to your community. I encourage you to continue to your effort in promoting golf. Golf is unique from other sports because players learn values like honesty and responsibility by calling penalties on themselves and reporting their own score. You may consider a partnership with "The First Tee", a nationwide program for youth developed to grow the game of golf.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment. I love golf and wish that it was more popular to young kids. I will most definitely continue to teach and give youths a platform to grow as athletes.
DeleteWhen I was younger, I was involved in a flag football sports league and it was a great experience with a wonderful coach and team. The recreation center I would play at was very limited in terms of sports as well and it would have been fun to try something like floor hockey. It makes me happy to know that other kids are getting an opportunity like this through people like you. I hope you keep up the good work.
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