According to Junior Achievement, nearly 70% of high school students want to start their own businesses, and most want to learn how. But for many of them, there is nowhere to learn it. Entrepreneurship education isn’t built into the system; it depends on where you live and what your school can offer. With only 27 states requiring it, access becomes a matter of geography and resources, not interest or ambition.
To address this gap, I wrote and self-published Roots & Rise: An Entrepreneur’s Fable, the story of Amar, a young farmer who learns to build a thriving farm with the guidance of a talking apple tree. I also created short videos to bring it to life and designed a project-based curriculum that helps students actually practice what the story teaches, from resource allocation to long-term planning. Then I take it into underserved schools and after-school programs, places where students are curious but too often overlooked, and turn those ideas into something they can engage with directly. This grant would allow me to print copies of the book so the students can take it home with them. That way, the learning won't stop when the session ends, and they continue building the skills they need to help their ideas grow.
