Isaiah Williams needed money—fast. Only 19, and about to become a father, he wanted to provide his child with everything he could. Williams heard about the Entrenuity Summer Business Camp, a faith-based program in the Chicago area created to teach African American and Latino high school students skills to operate their own businesses. Admittedly, he wasn't really interested in learning about business. The real draw of the camp was the $500 stipend given to each student at the end of the session to offset any income they might lose from not working a summer job.

Across the country in California, Opal Dillard was applying to the same camp. As a high school junior, she wanted to learn how to integrate her faith with the business world. It was something she knew she wouldn't get in any of her classes.

With 350 applications and only 50 slots, the Entrenuity selection team chose both Williams and Dillard to attend the weeklong camp held at Wheaton College. They knew that while Williams and Dillard were applying for very different reasons, a week spent learning about Christian business practices could ultimately transform their futures.

Brian Jenkins, the cofounder and president of Entrenuity, has been running the summer camp since 2005. His hope is that the participants would apply the life skills they acquire during the week to earn income, but more importantly to learn how to be Christian leaders within their communities.

"The camp is kind of an anomaly," he says. "Some kids who come really struggle academically or they've flunked out. We have other kids who come from some of the top prep schools in Chicago. These kids might be the same skin color, but they typically would never have a reason to interact with each other."

But social background doesn't matter at Entrenuity. For that one week, at least, everyone is equal.

The participants study Entrenuity's faith-based curriculum, Creating True Wealth, and take field trips to local businesses to see how they are run. Campers are then paired up in teams and assigned a business project. The teams must work together to create a business plan, and at the end of the camp a group of judges evaluates each plan.

Isaiah Williams had the chance to be the ceo of a mock bead jewelry company. Opal Davis won a leadership award for motivating her team. Both hope to attend business school.

"I got pumped up about learning how to compete in business," Williams says. "They taught us about finances, managing employees, working as a team, and how to develop a business plan using PowerPoint to present the information."

Man with a plan
A devoted husband and father of three young kids, Jenkins, 39, has worked with over 1,500 students like Williams and Dillard since starting his Oak Park, Illinois-based not-for-profit organization. His passion and dream of teaching youth about business and Christian principles started in 1993 at Wheaton College. He volunteered to work with urban youth at Chicago's Lawndale Community Church and was overwhelmed by what he now realizes was a God-given thought: If these kids could have an opportunity to learn practical business skills, they would have much brighter futures.

"I thought it would be great if we could teach the kids how to run their own business," Jenkins says. "It would give them economic security and help their communities."

After starting his career at a ministry called Inner City Impact, he went on to work for the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship.

When he was laid off in 1999, he knew he could find a new job in business training. At the same time, he felt a growing desire to integrate faith into his job. He also couldn't forget the underprivileged kids he'd worked with earlier.

"The end goal of my life was to serve God and His kingdom," Jenkins says. "I just tried to remain faithful."

With the help of his colleague Duane Moyer, who is now part of Entrenuity's advisory board, Jenkins set off to launch his own business. He chose the name Entrenuity—a combination of the words "entrepreneurship" and "ingenuity"—because it evoked the qualities he hoped to inspire in his students.

Jenkins admits that the early days weren't easy. But his wife, Jenai, a high school music teacher, was supportive. "She believed in the mission of what I was trying to do and supported me the whole way," he says. "God led her to have a passion for urban ministry, and that helped me develop Entrenuity."

Equipped with the Creating True Wealth curriculum (which was largely written by Moyer), Jenkins started contacting local public schools to see if he could train educators and youth workers to teach the Entrenuity course. While many schools expressed interest, funding the classes was a major challenge. So Jenkins developed a donor base that covers about 80 percent of the cost. The school and students are responsible for the balance.

"It's a shared expense," Jenkins explains. "If there's no expense for the students, they don't have the shared ownership. It's a lot different when you're paying for it."

Integrating integrity
In addition to the weeklong summer camp, one of Entrenuity's greatest success stories has been Cornerstone Academy in Chicago, an alternative high school for at-risk youth. According to Jenkins, many students at Cornerstone faced academic or disciplinary challenges at other schools. But instead of seeing the students' past problems, Jenkins saw their potential.

With help from Jenkins's staff of teachers at Entrenuity, those first 14 students learned marketing, finance, and customer service. After the students successfully completed the coursework, they launched their own mosaic art business. During their first two sales events, the students earned $500 in gross income.

Jenkins can't help but feel like a father figure to past and current students, like those from Cornerstone, Isaiah Williams, and Opal Davis. He prays that faith and integrity will be integrated into every aspect of their lives.

"I hope all my students learn that they can serve and honor the Lord no matter where they are," he says. "Whether they start their own businesses or are employees somewhere else, I hope they look at work as a way to honor God."

Amy Adair is a freelance writer who lives in Lombard, Illinois, with her family. For more information, visit www.entrenuity.com

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