With Tutoring Business, Teen Entrepreneurs Win Contest

When Parkdale High School seniors Nicole Jenkins and David Toledo saw their friends struggling in their classes at the beginning of the school year, they wanted to help.

They figured out how, and in the process learned a few lessons themselves.

As part of an assignment for their business technology class in September, the pair began formulating a plan to start a tutoring service. They entered their project, called Top of the Charts Tutoring, into the Washington area's National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship business plan competition and last month placed second out of 31 entries. They won $750.

"We noticed we were seeing less of our friends because they were skipping school or stopped coming," said Jenkins, 17, of Riverdale. "So we wanted to reduce the dropout rate and help them do better in their classes."

After completing their business plan, Jenkins and Toledo launched Top of the Charts Tutoring in December. They charged each Parkdale student $20 per one-hour session for help in algebra I and II, Spanish I and II, English, keyboarding and geometry.

Students contact Jenkins or Toledo to set up a session with one of the tutors in a public library, usually Theodore R. McKeldin Library at the University of Maryland in College Park, or the public library in New Carrollton.

Toledo said he and Jenkins didn't have a chance to advertise while preparing for the competition, so they've tutored only a few students so far. But they said they hope to attract more clients now that the competition is behind them, especially as their peers prepare for the state's High School Assessment tests.

The tutors' business technology teacher, Erin Cribbs, said this was the first year the Riverdale school incorporated the competition into its curriculum. This year's competition included 31 business plans from 1,600 students at 36 National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship programs in the Washington area. Each program was allowed to submit up to three business plans for the contest, which took place Jan. 18 at the offices of the competition's sponsor, Allied Capital, in the District.

Participants turned in complete business plans, including marketing strategies, monthly and yearly projections, and long- and short-term goals, said Vernice White, program director for the organization in the Washington area. The entrepreneurship foundation is a New York-based nonprofit organization that teaches the basics of starting and running a business to young people from low-income neighborhoods.

Jenkins and Toledo, both in the top 1 percent of their class at Parkdale, hope to attend the University of Maryland at College Park. They also want to major in business, and they plan to continue running Top of the Charts while in college. They're already planning to hire high school students when business picks up.

"If we expand the business to something like the Sylvan or Huntington [Learning Center], that would be great," Toledo said.

For information about Top of the Charts Tutoring, visithttp://www.freewebs.com/topthechartsor e-mailtop_the_charts@verizon.net.