Launched in 2005, WellesleyWeston Magazine is a quarterly publication tailored to Wellesley and Weston residents and edited to enrich the experience of living in two of Massachusetts' most desirable communities.
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jumpsuits, you would have thought it was a community college class," she says. Venturing Out does not release to its instructors what crime an inmate has been convicted of or the inmate's family situation. Rather, participants are free to share — or not share — any personal information. Launched in 2009, there is now a waiting list for the program at the four institutions where Entrepreneurship 101 is offered: Framingham, Suffolk County House of Correction in Boston, Northeastern Correctional Center for men in Concord, and the Middlesex County House of Correction for men in Billerica. Rellas soon signed up to teach the full course. Her students' business plans ranged from cleaning businesses to a combination yoga studio/drug counseling center and from a moving company to a hybrid chicken farm. "One student grew up on a chicken farm— it's what she knows," Rellas says. What the student didn't know — but learned through Entrepreneurship 101 — was how to apply for a business certificate to open a sole-pro- prietorship in Massachusetts, file taxes, and the intangible that many with more privi- leged backgrounds often take for granted. "I never had anybody want me to be suc- cessful before," one female participant says on a video describing the program on Venturing Out's Web site. "My future is in my hands. I don't have to depend on the system." For more information, visit www.venturingout.org. 137 summer 2012 | WellesleyWeston Magazine