Entrepreneur's Fund Helps Teens Learn
Global Marketplace Skills

With a $2,000 grant from The Community Foundation added to their own coffers, several high school students from New Haven’s Granville Academy flew to Cleveland, OH in 2010 to attend a leadership convention aimed toward helping them reach a bright future in the business world. The grant was made possible through the Peter & Judith Schurman Fund.

The convention was organized to prepare youth for success in the global marketplace under the theme, “Economic Integration through Efficacious Leadership and Education.” Over the course of three days, the students attended seminars in which they were introduced to business leaders and local college options.

Christina Seldon, a junior at the Granville Academy who attended the conference, expressed excitement over the opportunities to network and interact with thousands of other young people from all over the U.S. and gratitude toward the speakers who gave up their time to be there and motivate the students. This year’s speakers included doctors, military officials and other paid public officials.

“The amount of knowledge and resources you take away with you at the end of the day is truly amazing. I always go home learning something new that I didn’t know when I got there,” Seldon said.

The New Haven affiliate of Granville Academy was established in 2003. Students from the school have been attending the national conferences every year since. Curlena McDonald has been president of the academy since its establishment.

“The conferences are set up to give the students a formal environment; to force the concept of business, global economy and how to dress,” McDonald said. “There is a tight schedule of business meetings and speakers. We try to bring in as many young people to speak to the students that we can.”

The students have to dress as if they were going to the office every day. To further reflect an actual business trip, the students also check into and out of the hotel themselves.

“Granville Academy is not only about having fun, it’s also about networking and obtaining the resources to better oneself,” Seldon said. “Granville Academy has taught me powerful tools to reach success in my life, and I have learned many amazing things that I doubt I would have leaned anywhere else.”

Small classes are held throughout the school year from 6 to 8 p.m. The students spend the year preparing for the annual Granville Academy Convention. They are placed on teams with students in other affiliates and must prepare to present a project at the convention either over the phone or with other communication devices.

“There are major benefits to our program,” McDonald said. “First, we are helping students who might not get the attention they need to stay in high school. They are coming because they want to and we are able to give them one-on-one attention. If individuals are good at something, we are able to give them the materials to exercise that. Once they do make it to college, we are able to give them funds to support them.”

“Throughout the year we learn ways to better empower ourselves in life,” Seldon said. “I can say that I am a proud student of Granville Academy and I have come a long way from where I started before this program.”

“That’s our goal,” McDonald said, “to continue to introduce the students to people and role models who will encourage them to continue to have a successful life.”

Granville Academy is a national after-school program that prepares inner city youth, but not exclusively, for success in the global marketplace by teaching the foundations of business, finance, technology, entrepreneurship, character building, community service and the opportunity for training on business ownership. It is taught entirely by volunteers. There are seven affiliates in six different states in the U.S. and recently, one located in Ghana.
“The Granville Academy staff voluntarily free up their time to help youth succeed. All who attend this Academy reach a high level of success in life because of it. Granville Academy is an inspirational program that reinforces positives instead of the negative,” Seldon said.

“Our goal is to try to get them to see business is an option, but gaining an education beyond high school is essential,” McDonald said. “That’s the real goal we try to relate.”

For twenty-five years, the Peter & Judith Schurman Fund has distributed more than half-a-million dollars in grants to support education in the broadest sense for those with few advantages, particularly to improve opportunities, and secondary education. The Fund was established by local entrepreneur and philanthropist Peter Schurman and his wife Judith Calhoun Schurman. A Korean War veteran – and the grandson of Cornell University’s third President - Peter created two companies by his mid thirties, both in the plastics industry. After the sale of his first, Peter established the U.S.-based Plastic Forming Company and invented the process for blow-molding double-walled cases and tool boxes used for hand and power tools, chain saws, camping lanterns and more. He garnered fifty patents over the span of his career, with Judy working by his side. Peter served on the boards of several nonprofits and was a Stephen Minister in the First Presbyterian Church in New Canaan, where his wife served as a deacon. Judy is a founding member of Staying Put in New Canaan, a nonprofit that helps seniors live healthy and independent lives.