In the fall of 2001 I taught a class at CCNY (City College of New York) entitled “Creativity—A Practical Approach” for the Adult and Continuing Education (ACE) Program that focused on nurturing and marketing the student’s own creativity. In the fall of 2003 I initiated the Howard Wexler Scholarship Fund, whereby two students received a tuition-free scholarship for a two-year master’s degree in education. The fund was replaced in 2019 by a scholarship fund at Stuyvesant High School (NYC) and will continue into perpetuity.
At the start of 2011 I joined Pam Chmiel, the founder of Teen Entrepreneur Boot Camp (TEBC), to develop a project at Stuyvesant High School in New York City called Toys By Teens. The students were exposed to all aspects of running their own toy company. In 2012 they engaged in an effort to sell their first toy with profits going back to the school. This program was abandoned in 2016.
Watch the video seen on Indiegogo.
In the Spring semester of 2012 I, along with Dr. Michael Blakeney, taught an accredited course at CCNY whereby students learned creative thinking through the invention of toys and games with the ultimate goal to license their creation to a company. Their inventions were to have been evaluated for a grade and be licensed by a toy company. If bought by a company, the student would have received 50% of the revenue, with 50% going to CCNY. This program was abandoned after the Spring semester.
