MSU Idea Shop camp inspires young entrepreneurs

STARKVILLE, Miss. (WCBI) – There’s a camp for almost every interest from sports to dance. In Starkville, camp at Mississippi State’s Idea Shop is encouraging young entrepreneurs.

“They just jump in head-first.”

Over the past week, nine high school students from three different states got a taste of what running a business is like.

Brooke Lammert, the iCreate Camp Director said the students are learning valuable skills they can use in the future.

“I think what’s interesting about this camp is, whether they’re wanting to start a business from the ground up you know, they’re getting to see that they’re getting a lot of experience with that to see what it takes,” Lammert said.

Even though some of the students came into the camp with little prior knowledge of the industry, everyone came together to come up with product ideas and manage the finances for their products.

“I just didn’t know what to think of, like, the business industry before. But now, I got a pretty good picture of it and I have an idea of what it looks like now,” Matthew Miller, a camper from Colorado Springs, said.

On top of learning how to market these products, they also learned some hands-on skills. Camp participant from Baton Rouge, Janessa Laushaw, made products all week.

Laushaw said it took her 5 minutes to make a koozie, which is faster than when she began the process.

Engineers and professors from MSU showed campers how to use power tools, computer software, and more. While all skills were taught, students got to pick their focus areas.

“We have very artistic kids, very, like handy kids, so I think with all of our skills tied into this, it was actually really good for us to be ‘ok we’re going to do this and this’ and stuff like that,” Laushaw said.

Lammert said it’s important to show kids the world of business at a young age because of their resilient nature.

“I think as adults, we lose that. We get so caught up in ‘Do I look silly’ or ‘What if I fail’ and ‘I don’t want to embarrass myself’. And, they’re not like that,” Lambert added. “They’re just really proud of what they’re doing and they, they put their all into it. If they fall, they get right back up and keep going. I think a lot of us lose that as we get older.”