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Commah derived from an entrepreneurship course at Horace Mann High School in the North Fond du Lac School District called INCubatorEdu.

Kurt Wismer, lead learner for INCubatorEdu@nfdl, said as part of the course, students create a startup using the Lean Startup method.

“Our young entrepreneurs identify a problem, then work through the lean process, along with a small army of community business mentors and coaches to ideate, research, prototype, test and rapid-build their business solution,” he said.

November is National Entrepreneurship Month, which spotlights the importance of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship education. To mark the occasion, Whiteboard Advisors’ Kelly Branning, spoke with Mark Cuban about his visit to an entrepreneurship class, the importance of entrepreneurship education, and why students should embrace failure rather than fear it.

“This innovative program takes the student beyond a textbook and places them in a real-world experience that takes place over an entire school year. The curriculum is at such a high level that it is ranked as a dual-credit class and teaches the students concepts beyond what they’d receive in a masters-level class. After completion of the first year, the program was said to have succeeded beyond expectations. Now the program is in its second year, and it continues to change the lives of Farmington High School students. The Daily Journal/ Farmington Press proudly presents this year’s Citizen of the Year award to Christy Pierce.”

Lewisville High School’s INCubatoredu course has been described as a version of the hit television show Shark Tank for young entrepreneurs. So what better way to give students entrepreneurial advice than to hear from a Shark himself – Mark Cuban.

Toward the end of the 2020-21 school year, I developed a plan. Come June, I’d walk out of The Colony High School near Lewisville, Texas, leaving behind a 14-year career in education, then return to corporate America. It wasn’t so much the stress of COVID-19 and remote instruction that did me in, but the monotony. I found myself teaching the same courses, serving on the same committees, feeling the same anxieties — year after year after year. Plus I realized I was becoming more flustered when the least little thing didn’t go as planned in my career education and training classes. I wanted my lessons to be perfect. I wanted to be perfect...

This fall, thousands of students at 196 high schools nationwide -- and even four high schools in Australia -- will start their own companies as part of a business incubator class launched nine years ago in Barrington.

How do high school students start their own businesses? This question echoes inside the minds of many budding teenage entrepreneurs with ambitious dreams and diligent spirits. Age, limited resources and other restrictions pose challenges to high schoolers. Despite these obstacles, seniors Rohan Gorti, Arin Jain and Zubin Khera did just that in their junior year. 

NORTH FOND DU LAC (NBC 26)  — What started out as an INCubatoredu class project is now a massive business success, exceeding all expectations. Commah, a line of air fresheners, car diffusers, and essential oils is now sold online and at several local salons and businesses, and will soon have a spot on the shelves of Festival Foods.