Board of Education approves Francis Tuttle Entrepreneurship Academy program

The State Board of Education gave unanimously approved plans for the Francis Tuttle Technology Center Entrepreneurship Academy, a new program that will launch when the Danforth Campus opens in August 2021.

As the spearhead of Francis Tuttle’s efforts to encourage entrepreneurship and business growth in the region, the Entrepreneurship Academy will offer an innovative educational experience for Oklahoma high school students. It will join the three current academies at Francis Tuttle that are open to high school sophomores through seniors – Biosciences and Medicine, Computer Science, and Engineering. All four will be located at the new Danforth Campus at 3841 E. Danforth Road in Edmond.

“We are excited to know that our plans for a new, innovative way to prepare high school students for the careers of their dreams are officially moving forward,” Dr. Michelle Keylon, Superintendent of Francis Tuttle Technology Center, said. “There is a growing body of research that shows high school students are interested in opening their own businesses. We wanted to focus on how we could really enhance the support for entrepreneurship, not only in Edmond but in Greater Oklahoma City and maybe even in all of Oklahoma.”

In the Entrepreneurship Academy, college prep and advanced placement classes in math and science are taught alongside the central focus of students developing an idea and building their own business. Students will experience the entrepreneurial process firsthand and spend class days collaborating with others to find new solutions and continuously develop their innovative ideas.

“This is an important moment and I am grateful for the approval for this program from the Board,” Khaaliq Salim, Director of the Danforth Campus, said. “We think the Entrepreneurship Academy can be the start of something really incredible and unique. It’s definitely the first of its kind in the state and it is exciting to have a framework in place for this innovative way to educate students and prepare them for the new economy.”

Elliott Adams, a member of the academy Advisory Board who helped develop the curriculum, said the curriculum will provide students with the skills they need to be successful in the modern workforce.

“After months of collaboration with the Francis Tuttle team, it’s incredibly exciting for the Entrepreneurship Academy curriculum to be approved by the Board of Education,” Adams said. “This program will offer the most contemporary and proven innovation methods to create real value for the market. The students themselves will have the chance to learn the skills that can make them successful in the innovation-based 21st century economy, no matter what their career path.”

Entrepreneurship Academy students will use the spaces and resources available at the Danforth Campus, such as Design Thinking Studios, a Product Realization Lab and the Francis Tuttle Design Thinking School to ideate, create, refine and present their business ideas. Through this process, those ideas could then grow into actual small businesses right out of the Danforth Campus.  

“The Entrepreneurship Academy will encourage high school students to imagine what the future can be and equip them to make it a reality,” Dr. Jaared Scott, Associate Superintendent, said. “In the new economy, the critical factor in production will be talent, not capital. We are determined to create generations of gritty, creative problem solvers that understand how to bring value to the market and the resolve to turn great ideas into profitable ventures.”