Bright Entrepreneurial Minds: ENCORE CAMP Scholars explore business careers
By: Nadia Tamez-Robledo

MCALLEN, TX.- Have you ever wanted to know exactly what your dog is thinking? Or make your morning commute in the blink of an eye? Maybe you'd like the ability to change the colors and design of your shoes with the click of a mouse.

You will someday be able to do all this and more if the ENCORE Scholars of De Leon Middle School in McAllen have anything to say about it. Students spent the day dreaming up the next generation of high-tech gadgets during ENCORE CAMP Business Day on Nov. 12.

"You actually get to do the stuff you want to do," De Leon student Jennifer Alvarado said of the CAMP. "It's also helping us if you want to be an inventor. It helps you come up with ideas. I'm still learning a lot."

Engaging Communities for College Readiness (ENCORE), branch of the Texas Valley Communities Foundation, strives to ensure that students around the Valley graduate from high school prepared to succeed in college and ultimately the workforce. It's College Awareness and Mentorship Program (CAMP) engages students in hands-on activities to learn about careers in the fields of business, forensic science and robotics, among others.

The CAMPs will be hosted throughout the academic year in the McAllen, Donna, Pharr-San Juan-Alamo and Edinburg school districts, which was made possible by a grant from ENCORE partner State Farm Insurance.

ENCORE Scholars learned the principles of entrepreneur ship and marketing before partnering up for their group project. Teams conceptualized a product and developed a marketing strategy for their inventions.

Seventh-grader Jinn Slough and his group designed The Teleporter, a device that would use microchip technology to transport people and goods quickly over long distances.

"Say if you're going to move somewhere," he said, explaining one of his invention's possible uses. "You have to put a teleporter chip and a GPS chip on it so it knows where to go."

Jennifer Alvarado and her team brainstormed to create the Glow Book, a tiny light that could be attached to book spines in order illuminate the pages, eliminating the inconvenience caused by reading with flashlights and making reading more fun, she explained. In addition to having the chance to be creative, she said she enjoyed learning more about what to expect from college.

"It's helping me because I actually go to the computer and they give me websites to see which degrees I need to have to get the job I want," she said. "People always say it's a long time, but time's passing by so fast, and I want to learn about college because [it's] almost around the corner. I want to be ready, to not get all surprised when I'm in college. I want to learn about it because I want to get a good job, working, get money, to have a good family life."

Slough, who has his sights set on a career in forensic science, agreed with Alvarado.

"I really like it," he said. "It really helps you think about what you want to be, and then when you finally know what you want to be, it'll help [you learn] about what degrees you have to go after to get that job."

"This specific CAMP provides great insight on the wide variety of business careers across industries" said Ernesto Villarreal, ENCORE Program Director. "Students participate in high engaging activities where they learn about entrepreneurship opportunities, finance, marketing and the importance of taking care of their credit when become adults".

"Our ENCORE Team works very diligently in promoting the importance of higher education and explore fast-growing careers with hundreds of middle school students in Edinburg CISD, PSJA ISD and McAllen ISD. We are very happy to see the ENCORE Program expanding to other school districts in the Rio Grande Valley " said Dr. Roland Arriola, TVCOF President.

For more information about ENCORE, please contact us at 956-903-4231 or evillarreal@tvcof.org.