The Calais School’s new Entrepreneurial Lab, where students are learning about self-employment and running a small business, received a generous $3,000 grant from the KearnyBank Foundation.

The Entrepreneurial Lab expands upon Calais’ existing Work Based Learning (WBL) Program, which is designed to empower high school and 12 Plus students with multiple learning disabilities so they can successfully join the workforce. Through WBL, students explore and define career goals, build workplace-readiness skills, and gain career area field experience through internships. 

“The Calais School is thankful to the KearnyBank Foundation for supporting educational institutions like us, providing literacy, financial literacy, higher education, and youth outreach. Together, we are improving young lives,” said Executive Director John Cohrs. 

The Entrepreneurial Lab provides students with the opportunity to create goods and materials that will eventually be sold online and in-person. Students have been busy learning their way around several pieces of equipment, including a t-shirt printing press and Cricut® as well as graphic design programs. To-date, they have used these tools to design custom t-shirts, signs and decals. 

“We are so excited to expose students to entrepreneurship as they explore careers and prepare for their future. By breaking entrepreneurship down into bite-sized chunks, students are gradually introduced to business ownership and operations, sales, marketing, production and self-employment,” explained Principal Fritzky

Entrepreneurship not only gives people with disabilities more control over their work environment, it can also lead to increased autonomy through economic self-sufficiency. Through entrepreneurship education, young people, including those with disabilities, learn organizational skills such as time management, leadership development and interpersonal skills, all of which are highly transferable skills sought by employers.

To learn more about The Calais School’s Transition Program visit our website.