US Teen Entrepreneurs Promote Organic Honey From Ghana

The Honey Project Empowers Teen Entrepreneurs
By Bridget Carey, The Miami Herald (USA), 12/31/2007

When high school students want to get experience in running a business, they usually take up summer internships or shadow corporate executives.

But several Broward County students have taken it a big step further -- they are running their own honey business and with a global twist.

The Honey Project is a program tied to the Junior Achievement Youth Entrepreneurship Program and the Minority E-Commerce Association -- also known as MECA. It selects 15 Broward high school students to run the business, which sells organic African honey.

Nathan Burrell, founder of MECA, conceptualized the The Honey Project and along with being a partner in the business, he serves as an advisor for the students.

''There are many after-school programs that focus on career training or reading or certain things from that standpoint, but we're one of the few unique projects that talk about youth entrepreneurship, in a sense that really gives the students an opportunity to own and manage their own business,'' Burrell said. "It's literally the students who are in control, who make the decisions on the day-to-day operations for the company.''

The Honey Project is a nonprofit entity that sells organic honey from Africa to people in the United States. The students charge about $20 for a 12-ounce jar to help raise money for the village in Agogo, Ghana, where the honey is produced…