Robert Smith from the Northeast AgEnhancment Program presents a check to Greenville High School Principal Mike Laster and Taconic Hills CSD Director of Instruction & Staff Development Sandra Gardner
Local farmers, educators and agri-business supporters joined together at the Berry Farm in Chatham today to announce the Tech Valley Entrepreneurial Agriculture Youth Initiative, a public-private partnership to build a talent pipeline for the local food system. During the event attendees learned about a summer camp opportunity for local teens called the “Home Grown Business Challenge.”
Supported by grant funding from the Farm Credit AgEnhancement Program and Tech Valley Career Pathways Consortium, the Home Grown Business Challenge will also receive ‘in-kind’ assistance from the Cornell Cooperative Extension of Columbia and Greene counties, Columbia-Greene Community College, Friends of the Farmer and Hudson Valley AgriBusiness Development Corporation.
As part of today’s announcement, the Farm Credit AgEnhancement Program awarded $4,000 to the Tech Valley Career Pathways Consortium to support an innovative summer camp for teens in the Hudson Valley. The camp is part of the coalition’s efforts to develop hands-on agri-business education programs for students.
The Home Grown Business Challenge, which will take place July 30 – August 3 at Columbia-Greene Community College, blends the formats of two popular television shows (“The Voice” and “Shark Tank”). Students will visit successful “value-added” businesses that support local farms. They will also develop 21st Century employment skills through adventure-based training while learning the basics of agriculture and business start-ups.
Students will be assigned to a team guided by successful entrepreneurs. Each team will then develop a product or service to generate additional revenue for a local farm. The program will culminate with each team of students pitching its idea to a panel of real-life venture capitalists on the final day of the camp.
The Home Grown Business Challenge is one of six summer camps offered by the Tech Valley Career Pathways Consortium. The camps, provided at no charge to students, are designed to give teens an opportunity to explore emerging career opportunities in their own backyards. For more information, please visit www.questar.org/summercamp.
The Tech Valley Career Pathways Consortium is a partnership between Hudson Valley Community College, Capital Region BOCES, Columbia-Greene Community College, Questar III BOCES, Washington-Saratoga-Warren-Hamilton-Essex BOCES, Schenectady County Community College, and SUNY Cobleskill.
