Inside Fredericksburg ISD's INCubatoredu Program | The Building Texas Show

Jason Roemer has taught business at Fredericksburg High School for 27 years — the last two building the school's INCubatoredu program from scratch. In year one, his students launched six businesses, pitched to a sold-out theater, and walked away with $21,000 in seed funding and scholarships.

Learn more about INCubatoredu at https://www.unchartedlearning.org/

In this episode of The Building Texas Show, Jason and host Justin McKenzie talk about what it actually takes to run a student entrepreneurship program in a small Hill Country town: recruiting 30+ community mentors in a single year, teaching high-achieving kids how to fail on purpose, and getting local business owners into the classroom to talk about the real numbers behind their companies.

You'll hear stories from the local business leaders Jason brought in as mentors, including David Pedragon, who talks openly about nearly going broke before selling his first company; Chad Myers of Core Javelina Holdings, who manufactures airbag suspension parts for 18-wheelers; and Dan Kemp, CEO of Security State Bank, who explains the difference between an entrepreneur and an "intrapreneur."

If you're a teacher, school administrator, or local business owner wondering whether your ISD could run a program like this, Jason lays out exactly how Fredericksburg did it — and what he's changing for year two.

00:00 – Welcome back to Fredericksburg
00:58 – Jason's 27 years in education, three hats: teacher, coach, dad
05:31 – Why Texas needs more teachers, and what CTE is doing differently
08:15 – Life in the Fredericksburg "bubble"
10:45 – David Pedragon's failed first business, and why social media hides it
11:36 – Chad Myers and Core Havelina Holdings
14:06 – Dan Kemp, Security State Bank, and "intrapreneurship"
18:26 – How much the program raised, and where the money goes
20:09 – The Gillespie County pitch contest results
24:02 – Advice for districts that want to start their own program
24:50 – What's next for year two

Know a district that should be doing this? Send them this episode. And if you want more conversations with the people building Texas one community at a time, subscribe to The Building Texas Show — new episodes every week.

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