'Entrepreneur Games' Help Boston Students Learn How To Start Businesses

BOSTON (CBS)- Playing games for a good cause, that's what happened Thursday at the "Entrepreneur Games" at Roxbury Community College. Proceeds support the innovative, non-profit "Build" program in Boston Public Schools.

The goal is to help young people think about their own possibilities as entrepreneurs.

Here's the Entrepreneur Games by the numbers: This is the 7th annual, about 1000 people from 70 companies joined the fun playing 40 games while raising $300,000 for the Build program that teaches entrepreneurship to Boston high schoolers.

"We actually go into high schools and teach young people how to start real businesses. Ultimately it's about using entrepreneurship as a hook, to put students on a path to college and career success," said Ayele Shakur of Build.

The competitors here are mostly from tech and startup companies.  They're playing for bragging rights, team building and networking.

"Who doesn't love a day out of the office to do something fun and irreverent, but it also allows us an opportunity to work together and partner in ways that we wouldn't normally do at work," said Christina Luconi, the Chief People Officer at Rapid7.

The donations from the companies Thursday will provide Build about a quarter of its budget for the year, helping to keep kids from dropping out and encouraging them to go to college.

"We know students in these schools have incredible promise and incredible talent, so by sparking their interest through entrepreneurship we're able to make amazing things happen for them," said Shakur.

For the participants it's a great way to give back while having a ball.

"I love it. I think it's a great team building experience," said Kellie Goodell, one of the players.

"It's a lot of fun and it's a great cause," added Kevin Nigro.

The Build program has a great track record in Boston. Ninety seven percent of the students graduate high school on time, and about 80% go on to college.