NEW BEDFORD, Mass. -- Career days, internships and job shadowing are among the standard ways that businesses help teenagers envision their futures beyond high school.

Few of the programs, however, teach students how to run their own businesses. Those skills are most often left to be learned in college or the "real world" beyond academic hallways.

But a multiyear Harvard study indicates that learning entrepreneurial skills may keep low-income students in school and on track for college. The program may be particularly effective for Hispanic students, who have the highest rates of dropping out of high school.

A study begun in 2001 by a Harvard researcher indicates that the National Federation for Teaching Entrepreneurship program and its focus on business-development skills improves reading scores among Hispanics. Like other students in the program, it also raises Hispanics' interest in attending college.

"Immigrant youth and their families generally have been found to be more entrepreneurial and idealistic about their future prospects than citizens who have lived in this country for multiple generations," according to the study. "The fact that NFTE seems to provide particular benefits to immigrant youth suggests that they view it as a tool for accessing opportunities."

The program is offered in 45 states, including 40 schools and community organizations in Massachusetts and Connecticut. It's not offered in Rhode Island.

At New Bedford High School, the federation's program is one component of the school's dropout-prevention efforts, said Jane M. Jacobsen, who serves on the city's dropout-prevention task force. Jacobsen is among four people at the school trained in the foundation's curriculum and helps connect students to businesses in Southeastern Massachusetts.

"It's one of many real-world applications that would help students find their high school experience worth staying for," she said. "We really looked into this [NFTE] course to infuse what was our sales and advertising course that needed some zip."

New Bedford began offering the program during the 2003 summer school session, adding it to school-year electives in January 2004. Classes average about 25 students each and demand is forcing the school to add a second section in January.

The federation was founded in New York City in 1987 by a former businessman and city high school math teacher. Started as a dropout-prevention program, it evolved into entrepreneurship training.

To offer the program, public school teachers must attend a training program at at one of nine colleges around the country, including Babson College, in Wellesley, Mass. Periodically, the teachers take more classes to maintain certification.

Teachers learn to help the students teach themselves, rather than just lecture. In that way, students learn to explore careers, set goals and recognize business opportunities.

"It's a lot more student-directed than teacher-directed," said Fred Pimentel, who teaches the program at New Bedford High. "[Students] are the expert in their business. I'm just a facilitator."

Typically, the teens look at what it would take to grow a business out of a personal hobby, such as baking or cars or music.

For Michael Navedo, a junior, it's animals.

In class earlier this month, he worked on a business card for a dog-caretaker business.

"I wanted to take this class," said Navedo, who is Puerto Rican. "I've always wanted to start my own business."

Navedo's father is a New Bedford police officer and his mother an occupational therapist, but he may get his business sense from an uncle who owns a cleaning business where he works.

"He already knows a lot," Navedo said. "He's been in business for a while."

Navedo may be learning his uncle's business from the ground up, but the program forces him to think about business at a higher level.

At New Bedford High, students have to develop customer profiles, determine market areas, design business cards and marketing material, calculate start-up costs and in some instances, create prototypical products. They pull the information together in PowerPoint presentations given to a panel of businesspeople before final grading by Pimentel.

"They all get a little nervous when they learn they have to do an oral presentation," said Jacobsen, the program coordinator.

At some schools, the teens dive into retailing. Students are given $50 to buy goods to resell at flea markets or in-school stores.

"The thing with the retail experience is it's very tangible to them," said Helen Rosenfeld, executive director of the foundation's New England office.

New Bedford High has a school store where students can sell goods, Jacobsen said, but doesn't make actual selling part of its program.

While the program doesn't always put money into the pockets of high schoolers, it benefits them in some measurable ways, according to the Harvard study.

At the beginning of the program, students expressed less interest in college than a comparison group. By the end of the program, the participants' interest had grown 32 percent, while the interest among the comparison group had dropped 17 percent.

Reading scores among Hispanic students in the program improved in relation to their white and African-American counterparts, as well as a comparison Hispanic group. Hispanics in the study also had better grades and were late to class less often than those in the comparison group.

The students also gain self-confidence, say those involved, which gets them thinking about life beyond high school and using college as a steppingstone to a career.

"I think a lot of it helps them with their self-esteem," Jacobsen said.

Navedo, the New Bedford junior, is thinking about the future now.

"I'm planning on hopefully going to college," he said.

Paul Grimaldi covers retailing and consumer behavior. E-mail him at pgrimald [at] projo.com