MANILA, Philippines—It’s never too young to start teaching students how to become entrepreneurs.

That is why as early as first year, students of the Multiple Intelligence International High School (MIIHS), are taught socially relevant entrepreneurship or what they call “entrepreneurship with a heart.”

MIIHS is the first institution in the country to advocate progressive education and the use of the theory of multiple intelligences as the cornerstone in educational practice.

“Before entrepreneurship even became a buzzword it is today, we had started teaching our students that putting up their own businesses is possible,” says Joy Abaquin, school directress.

An offshoot of the Multiple Intelligence International School (elementary) and Child’s Place (nursery), founded in 1996, MIIHS was born last year.
It has 30 first-year students, mostly 13-year-olds.

Last Friday, MIIHS launched “Faces of Youth Entrepreneurship,” an event that highlighted the eight intelligences or “smarts” and the potential businesses borne from each group. The school teaches the students to use each smart to hone a particular face or type of entrepreneurship.

In this program, students are challenged to look into social problems that plague the country and develop solutions where they themselves can be part of.

In response, each “smarts” group presented their prototype businesses:

Flash Range, an advertising/publishing business (linguistic intelligence or “word smart”); P.O.O.F., a fund-raising event group (logical-mathematical intelligence or “number/reasoning smart”); and Adole-Sense, a teen art gallery (spatial intelligence or “picture smart”).

The other businesses include Get Wired, a line of accessories made of wire (bodily kinesthetic intelligence or “body smart”); Boom Box, a musical production outfit (musical intelligence or “music smart”); and Pastushi, a Japanese-Italian restaurant (interpersonal intelligence or “people smart”).

Also included are Make a Difference shirts, a line of personalized shirts (intrapersonal intelligence or “self smart”); and The Soap Factory, a line of environmentally safe natural soaps and bath products (naturalist intelligence or “nature smart”).

At the start of the school year, MIIHS students choose a “smart” which they believe would utilize their strengths the most. Aside from the usual classes of English, Math, Filipino, and Science, the students undergo mentorship programs that help them conceptualize their businesses and products.

To simulate real world environment, the school even created entrepreneurial laboratories, much like small offices, where students can hold their meetings to talk about their product designs, logos, and packaging, among others.

“In our school, we teach them that a true entrepreneur is someone who possesses business ethics and integrity, not just skills. An entrepreneur should use his skills to make a difference, otherwise, it’s pointless,” Abaquin says.

It’s not like the students don’t have business experience themselves. Every Christmas for the past two years, the MI grade school students have been holding a bazaar sale in Eastwood City. Here, they would sell food, handicrafts and accessories, which they created themselves. Proceeds go to the Bahay Kalinga Foundation.

“That’s what we like our students to learn: That entrepreneurship can also be a means of not only raising funds but a means of helping other people,” she says.

Part of the mentorship program of the school is to partner each group with an entrepreneur who would give advice on how the students can successfully run their businesses. The mentors, some of them entrepreneurs, were chosen based on their experiences and willingness to help.

For the first time, the students met their mentors during last week’s event, which also served as the students’ final exam.

The mentors include Sari Yap, founder and CEO of Mega Publishing Group (word smart); Vicky Garchitorena, president of Ayala Foundation and Marianne Quebral, executive director of Venture for Fund Raising Foundation Inc. (number smart); and gallery owner Jack Teotico (picture smart).

Also in the event were accessories designer Happy David of Get Happy (body smart); Odyssey president Jay Fonacier (music smart); and Gerry Apolinario of Gerry’s Grill (people smart).

Natasha general manager Majar Jardolin and Team Manila’s Mon Punzalan and Joey Alviar (self smart); and Michelle Dula-Asence, founder of Zen Zest (nature smart), willingly gave their advice to the students as well.

“Seeing the children so serious about what they’re doing is so inspiring,” said David, who was impressed by the students’ works. “I wish there was a school like this when I was younger.”

David, whose Get Happy brand now retails in Rustan’s department stores, sees herself in the budding entrepreneurs. “Giving these children this kind of exposure and respect is important. They have to know that they can share their ideas anytime without anyone laughing at them.”

“Entrepreneurship, after all, should be more of a universal mindset or culture rather than a stereotypical term,” says Abaquin.

She adds the entrepreneurial mind is not just for the child who would eventually venture into business. It is a mindset that everyone would need whether they go into medicine, politics, or architecture.

Abaquin says they are now in talks with banks which would help them teach financial literacy to the students. “We’ll teach them where they can get their capital from and manage their finances when they do put up their own businesses someday.”

In their third year, the students will be sent to partner schools in Rhode Island in the United States for more entrepreneurial training, for them to experience the “bigger picture.”

She says: “We don’t want to train skilled workers because that encourages export of talent. What we want is to build the students’ confidence and help them establish their business empires at home, thus contributing to true national development from within.”