CRECE, Education partner to offer Lemonade Day in Puerto Rico’s public schools
The Center for Economic Renewal, Growth & Excellence (CRECE) and the Department of Education signed a three-year collaborative agreement to offer the Lemonade Day children’s entrepreneurship education program in public schools across the island.
In its initial phase, Lemonade Day will be available to students in third, fourth and fifth grades in schools in the Bayamón educational region where it could reach up to 4,000 students and more than 150 educators. Training for teachers will take place before December 2022 to begin offering the program in the Spring semester starting in January 2023, nonprofit officials announced.
Lemonade Day is an experiential program that teaches children how to start, own and operate their own business through a lemonade stand. Since its launch in Puerto Rico four years ago, Lemonade Day has benefited more than 4,500 children and 1,500 mentors across the island. The Lemonade Day curriculum strengthens academic skills such as math, language, and communication, and develops self-esteem and leadership.
“For CRECE this agreement is a step forward in our mission to cultivate and implement solutions to foster self-sufficiency, economic growth and social welfare in Puerto Rico. We are investing in children from elementary grades to develop the most entrepreneurial generation of Puerto Ricans in our history, since it is proven that entrepreneurship is key to sustainable progress,” said Tere Nolla, executive director of CRECE, license holder of Lemonade Day in Puerto Rico.
Meanwhile, Education Secretary Eliezer Ramos-Parés said this is a novel initiative to achieve the objective of incorporating business and financial education into the curriculum of K-12 public schools.
“At the Department of Education, we want to equip our students with life skills that will enable them to successfully achieve their personal and professional goals once they enter the workforce,” Ramos-Parés said.
“The Lemonade Day program is ideal because it introduces young people to financial concepts and motivates them to set goals, work towards them and save through experiential learning,” he said.
Natalia Subirá, regional director of Lemonade Day, explained that through the program, children develop a sense of purpose, and empowerment, critical thinking skills for setting goals, planning, and making decisions, as well as values of integrity and community responsibility.
Under the agreement, Lemonade Day will provide free teacher training and all educational materials for teachers and children. Neither CRECE nor Lemonade Day will get paid by the Education Department, the nonprofit stated.
