Frequently Asked Questions about AlligatorZone® Academy’s Summer Enrichment Workshop.

I am curious to know what is covered in this year’s AlligatorZone® Academy summer workshop.

[tl;dr: The workshop experience is tailored to the particular interests of school-age participants, to get them on a path to launching their own change-making project or product by practicing skills and resources used by real-world entrepreneurs. ]

What is the duration of the workshop?

10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in Tampa, FL. This includes some healthy breaks and a lunch break. Lunch will be catered from reputable establishments.

What do you mean by ‘tailored to the interest’ of the child?

Prior to the session, we will understand the kids’ interests in order to meet them half-way and getting them excited about their workshop outcome.

Will the workshops teach any theory?

No. Participants will use real-world tools used by startup entrepreneurs and learn as they do.

We are traveling the week of your workshop. Will you be offering more workshops?

If there is interest, we will add one more session. We need 10 children to create another workshop.

Are these workshops only for summer time?

Yes, for now.

How many students will you admit into a workshop?

No more than 20 in the In-person workshops.

What if you have registrations below the threshold or beyond the maximum?

We will hold the session in a different venue.

In which cities are these workshops currently being offered?

This summer, the workshop is being offered in Tampa Bay.

Who will be the coaches?

Coaches, as far as possible, will be current or former entrepreneurs who have personally experienced the startup journey. Click here to see coach bios.

How is the workshop and curriculum being developed?

The workshop is a deeper experience based on pilots conducted in various schools, and the curriculum is being developed by experienced entrepreneurs, and in consultation with other entrepreneurs.

What is the tuition?

The tuition will be listed at the information website for specific workshops. A parent may join the child for free, and be present as an observer, with a chaperone pass and enjoy a shared experience that can then be extended at home after the workshop.

Where can I see testimonials from previous workshops?

Please visit the information page at AlligatorZone.org/Academy.

How will the workshops help my kids get a head start on college?

The workshops of AlligatorZone® Academy aim to eventually make your child look at the world like an entrepreneur – by seeing opportunities to make things better wherever they set their eyes.

The coursework will shed the light on various pathways the child can take to brand herself or himself distinctively. If the students continue with the chosen activity or start another activity using the skills acquired in the workshop they start to build a body of knowledge that will make them very interesting candidates for college admission. Besides, the marketing communication skills they will pick up by being in the workshop will help them communicate effectively for a generally distracted world.

What kind of communication skills are we talking about?

Our goal will be to help the kids understand salesmanship with authenticity.

Just as in the word of business, we learn how to market a product or how to market ourselves by communicating with the aim of achieving a desired reaction, kids in AlligatorZone® Academy’s workshops will start acquiring skills to communicate in a goal-oriented manner, so that they get heard above the noise. They will learn how to apply business marketing principles to their personal life and communicate succinctly to get the attention of a distracted audience – be it a parent, a teacher, a college admission official, or an interviewer for an internship.

How do you handle the various age-ranges within a session?

This is a project-based learning. Kids may work with and alongside one another and help each other out. With our founders’ experience organizing computer coding camps for kids in the dojo style where the older kids share their knowledge with the younger ones, we have found that kids learn really well from one another when the environment is playful and builds camaraderie. For the older kids, they gain clarity through helping the younger ones. The younger ones seem to want to emulate the older ones.

How will the workshops help my kids get a head start in life?

We have observed children who have experienced the public events at AlligatorZone as well as the pilot workshops instinctively become problem solvers and not complainers. They will learn about entrepreneurs who are creating an exciting future against odds. The participants will know that success may not happen overnight for the entrepreneurs — and that setbacks are fresh starts for new directions or new opportunities. Developing such an entrepreneurial mindset, we believe will serve them well in life. The workshops make the kids apply their innate curiosity to the grownup world of business and commerce, and that opens a new path of inquiry and learning for them which we believe will help them connect passion with purpose. Most importantly, participants in the workshops will have the opportunity to envision and plan for career paths that currently do not yet formally exist.

What’s the right age to get started with AlligatorZone® Academy?

In the free public events, kids as young as 6 or 7 are extremely engaged and perceptive. With project-based learning, in our observation, 9 or 10 years is a good age to want to get things done. Mileages vary, though.

Will teenagers get anything special from AlligatorZone® Academy’s workshops?

Teenagers who have the desire, will learn the steps to launch their project and run with them on their own.

Why not wait till the last year of high school for such activities?

The sooner the kids start building a robust body of work, the better because it makes room for compounded benefits to accrue to the child over a period of time if they continue with some of the activities.

Through AlligatorZone’s free public events we have come to realize that even late elementary school-age children do well on a productive and enjoyable journey to grow up as problem solvers. Besides, high school gets busy for kids with SAT prep, robotics and regular school workload. By then it may also be harder to play catch-up by building a body of work that differentiates a child and sets her or him apart from the crowd for college or a career track, especially for a body of work that is aligned with their passion, and one they sincerely believe in. It might take a while for a child to know what to pursue based on her or his interests and the practicality of such pursuit, from the family’s standpoint.