FSCJ, Nassau School District receives state grant to help fund entrepreneurship education
104.5 WOKV| by Hannah Lee | February 25, 2021
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Nassau School District and FSCJ are recipients of the Department of Education’s Perkins V Entrepreneurship Education and Training Grant. The grants aims to help expand entrepreneurship-related initiatives across the state’s career and technical education (CTE) programs.
A total of $1.5 million were given to twenty-two agencies in the state. The money will fund a variety of initiatives, such as teacher professional development and certification programs in entrepreneurship education to the development of student idea-accelerator programs or start-up CTE boot camps for budding entrepreneurs.
The grant will also help with underwriting the costs associated with integrating entrepreneurship education and training into existing CTE programs of study.
The Nassau School District received $50,000 and FSCJ was awarded $25,000.
“While we know the quality of Florida’s career and technical education programs is unmatched, it is vital that our students graduate as critical thinkers, value creators and excellent communicators,” Governor Ron DeSantis said in a press release. “Entrepreneurship education and training ensures for a well-rounded graduate and this is another step toward our goal to make Florida the best state in the nation for workforce education by 2030.”
The Nassau County School District will be using the money to offer an Entrepreneurship and Marketing Summer Institute for 8th through 11th graders across the district, construction of a half credit hybrid or virtual business leadership skills course for 8th graders, and classroom tie-ins between high school multimedia courses and the Institute for Enterprise (I4E) NTCC (Bean Center) Entrepreneurship program.
“With this grant more students will be exposed to the characteristics of an entrepreneurial mindset and have the opportunity to meet local small business owners. It is exciting that we are able to expand our entrepreneurship program in a way that reaches middle school students.” Brian Simmons, the district’s Entrepreneurship instructor, said in a press release.
