GRAND BOULEVARD — Dyett High School for the Arts is getting a new eight-week entrepreneurship seminar thanks to a new partnership between 1871 and Chicago Public Schools.
Later in April, 20 freshmen at the newly reopened school, 555 E. 51st St., will start learning some of the same skills that budding entrepreneurs learn at the tech incubator Downtown.
Ths skills are crucial in today's economy regardless of the job you are applying for or the field you are pursuing, said 1871 CEO Howard Tullman.
“It might not be in the job description to be an entrepreneur, but you need to be entrepreneurial,” Tullman said.
Tullman is adapting his book, “The Perspiration Principles,” to form the lessons for the seminar with the idea of passing along those rubrics webcasts of the lessons to other schools that want to develop entrepreneurship programs.
Tullman said the profits from the adaptation of the book will all be put back into Dyett to continue developing the curriculum.
Principal Beulah McLoyd said she visited 1871 earlier in the year and wanted to find a way to bring the passion, learning and creativity it fostered into the school.
“If given the right opportunities, our students are able to create great things,” McLoyd said.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel said students need to learn to try again after failing and be creative when problem solving, the same skills required of entrepreneurs.
Steelcase and Interface Carpets are helping to fund the creation of an 1871-inspired classroom for the school with local designer Barbara Pollock.
Tullman said he’s hopeful more of the city’s entrepreneurs will commit funding to making the program a success and repeatable at other schools.
