"Meeting these kids made a big impact on me," says engineering Professor Gregory Crawford. "You come to the quick realization that these kids will be out in the impersonal world of the streets. ... I started thinking, what kind of impact could I have?"
Engineering Professor Gregory Crawford pulls his car up to the Rhode Island Training School. A guard inside sees him coming up the walk and slides open the cyclone fence gate, admitting him to the institution where Rhode Island incarcerates its juvenile offenders.
Inside, Crawford walks down a hallway and down stairs to a classroom that looks like any other, except for a greenhouse attached to it where potted plants bask in sunshine.
He is in the science room, and where he joins Training School teacher Charles Pearson for the day’s lesson combining a bit of science, technology and entrepreneurship. Crawford is co-teaching a course he designed with Pearson, hoping that this discussion-oriented multidisciplinary approach might give at least some of them hope and skills that will improve their chances of never coming back to the Training School.
"Some of these kids, it’s sad, they shouldn’t be here. They’re so smart," Crawford said.
Crawford teaches a range of undergraduates, graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, but it’s also stimulating to take what he knows to his unorthodox audience off campus.
"It’s more challenging in some respect. I could make a bigger impact in some cases. When they leave here and they’re happy and excited about science, it’s very gratifying," said Crawford, who also has presented programs to local schools, a Boy’s and Girl’s Club, and the Bridge School of Rhode Island for children expelled from schools.
Crawford’s course teaches Training School students they can invent something, patent it and start a business. The students, boys and girls segregrated into five classes, have discussed with the two teachers everything from "what is an entrepreneur?" to making up an organizational chart, to designing their own business cards using software. Two of the companies are Basketball Prodigy, selling equipment (located on Deadman Drive) and D.R. Hydro — WE DO ALL WORK ON SHOW CAR’S AND TRUCK’S (located on Weed Avenue). They have found it shocking to learn that they might need $300,000 or more to start up a company. One teen, James, presented his idea for a heated blower for leaves and melting ice. The yard equipment would run on rechargeable NiCad batteries, efficient and nonpolluting, facts he found on the Internet. James declined to present his idea for a language translator with voice recognition software.
"It was a great idea but he wanted to keep it for himself to patent it," said Crawford.
The Training School classes grew out of a Brown engineering department Materials Institute for local school teachers, where Pearson was a participant. A few months later, Crawford and his graduate students and postdoctoral fellows visited Pearson’s classroom to present some outreach activities.
"Meeting these kids made a big impact on me," Crawford said. "You come to the quick realization that these kids will be out in the impersonal world of the streets. …I started thinking, what kind of impact could I have?"
Crawford, who has $300,000 in funding from the National Science Foundation for three years of entrepreneurship courses for undergraduates at Brown, received $10,000 in additional funding under an NSF program called Research Experiences for Teachers, to carry the idea into local schools. Crawford spends it on the students’ software and supplies.
Crawford recalled an initial visit to the Training School.
"When asked: ‘How are you going to make money?’ one young man yelled out, 'I am going to win the lottery.’ Later during that period we started to speak about patents and how scientists and engineers write patents to protect their ideas, and that obtaining a patent and making money is more probable than winning the lottery — in fact we gave them some statistics. When they figured out that they could rub their feet on the ground and use static electricity to switch their sample liquid crystal display, one young man came up with the idea to create a battery-rechargeable unit that is placed inside your sneakers. When we mentioned that he had a great idea to the rest of the group, he jumped up with a nearly uncontrollable excitement, saying ‘Don’t tell anyone my idea — I want to patent it.’"
The brisk pace of discussion and the upbeat mood can make Crawford forget that he is in a prison for juvenile offenders. The reminders can be stark, such as the handcuffs on the girls brought into the classroom, or more subtle.
"I asked what position they’d like in a company. CEO? They said assistant manager, worker. That’s what they thought was in store for them," Crawford said.
"Do we believe that all of these students will turn out to be entrepreneurs? Of course not, but some have tremendous potential and there is no doubt in my mind that there will be entrepreneurial success stories," Crawford said.