On November 16, the question “What are you good at?” was written at the top of the board at the Guam Green Growth Makerspace and Innovation Hub. The answers, given by kids between the ages of 6 to 13, ranged from “dancing” to “bowling” to “making smoothies”.
This question is meant to get them thinking about their own strengths and interests as they begin the first day of Nenpire, a start-up entrepreneur program designed to “unleash creativity, build skills and empower the next generation of ‘nentrepreneurs'”.
Through Nenpire, participants learn about the different aspects of entrepreneurship through mentorships with business owners throughout the island. One of those mentors is Guam Green Growth’s Circular Economy Coordinator Abby Crain.
After Daria Calvo, the creator of Nenpire, attended a workshop at the G3 Makerspace she approached Crain about collaborating for the neni entrepreneurship program. This was a natural step for collaboration since in the past the Makerspace has collaborated with other organizations such as GUMA (Guam Unique Merchandise and Art) and the Guam Junior Achievement Program.
“It’s really the same material but just presented to be much more palatable and the hands on activities are different for the kids programs,” said Crain. For this age group, it’s important that each step from development to product launch is presented in interactive ways for the participants to grasp. During her presentation, she made sure to not just show products that were created through the support of the Makerspace but also gave the kids a tour of the workshop to show the tools and process of how those products were made.
On November 26th, the Makerspace also held a special Nenpire Plastic Prototyping workshop, where plastic bags were fused together to create wearable crowns. This is a workshop that has been offered to adults several times in the past, just tailored to a younger audience.
Other activities included one where the kids were given a random bag of raw materials from pipe cleaners to canvas scraps to see what they can create, encouraging innovation as they consider what businesses they want to develop. These activities and this special collaboration between Nenpire and the G3 Makerspace is meant to start planting seeds about what a circular economy is and get the kids thinking more creatively about the kind of products they want to create – and on a larger scale, the future they want to see.
“A lot of sustainability and the things we do for Guam Green Growth and Center for Island Sustainability is really for our future,” said Crain, “and these kids are the future.”
The culmination of the program will be the Neni Christmas Market, where the nentrepreneurs will have their new businesses and products on display. The marketplace will take place on December 22 and community members are welcome to attend and shop their new products. In addition, one of the nentrepreneurs will be having pop up shops on December 4 and 18th at the Makerspace green store and there’s already has a corner set up where folks can shop Nenpire products – just in time for the holidays!
