Trust Your Crazy Ideas Challenge Kicks Off: REpurposingNOLA is partnered with Edna Karr Secondary School students
(New Orleans) July 27, 2010 - The Trust Your Crazy Ideas Challenge has officially kicked off Tuesday as four partner schools and their accompanying entrepreneurs convened at the Idea Village
REpurposingNOLA Piece by Peace™ is pleased to partner with nine students from Edna Karr Secondary School: Herman Marigny, Oscar Tamayo, Kevin Suazo, Brittany Taylor, Theodore Davis, Hao Tu,m, Julie Dinh, Chyna McCormick, and Briana Craige. Each student was selected by their teachers to participate in the Trust Your Crazy Ideas Challenge that will be led by their faculty team supervisor Eric Smith:
“The student team and Edna Karr faculty are incredibly thrilled to be working in this pilot program for the fall semester,” said Eric Smith. “REpurposingNOLA is the perfect entrepreneur fit for Karr.”
Initiated as a partnership between the Brees Dream Foundation and the Idea Village, the Trust Your Crazy Ideas Challenge allows students from each participating school five months to develop a for-profit business venture that will allocate the proceeds to support a school project. Students have until October to brainstorm their business and action plan and in December will pitch their successes to panel judges that will include Drew Brees. As for the winner, the Brees Dream Foundation will match up to $10,000 in revenue generated from the project based on key entrepreneurial elements.
After a15-minute brainstorming session, the students agreed to call their business venture “rE-Kreate”
Tuesday’s launch marked the first meeting between the Edna Karr students and their entrepreneur mentor, REpurposingNOLA Piece by Peace™ founder Traci Claussen:
“This is what entrepreneurship is all about,” Traci said. “It starts with one crazy idea and begins to grow like bamboo into a very strong, sustainable resource. As soon as the students put their business name up on the white board, I got chills; we knew it was solid ground from which they could launch.”
During the brainstorming session, students found inspiration from REpurposingNOLA Piece by Peace™ items. Travel bags made of recycled banners, and evening bags made of vintage draperies and fabrics, were on display to help stimulate a few crazy ideas.
To further foster the creativity, Google and Ideapaint have donated the development of an idea room stocked with laptops and a dry-erase surface on the walls. REpurposingNOLA Piece by Peace™ will be working with the Edna Karr students providing support and guide the student team to harvest a successful venture from a simple idea.
Edna Karr high school is a college preparatory and part of the Algiers Charter Schools Association (ACSA) and the New Orleans Public Schools System (NOPS). Karr strives to prepare its students for the rigors of college by requiring four years of math, science, English, and social studies, requirements that are above and beyond what the state mandates. 80% of Karr graduates attend four-year college, and 15% attend two-year college. The mission of Edna Karr High School is to provide a college preparatory curriculum for all its students to become independent learners and achievers through the involvement of all stakeholders.
