From Student to CEO, Young Entrepreneurs Graduate
2014 Young Entrepreneurs Academy Commencement
TACOMA, Wash.- Eight high school students from Pierce County received CEO status on June 4, 2014, at the 2014 Young Entrepreneurs Academy (YEA!) Commencement at STAR Center, Metro Parks Tacoma, South 66th Street, Tacoma, Wash., 98409.
After months of hard work, this year’s instructors Aaron Donaldson of Cornerstone Advisory Group and Kevin Hayes of Tactical Marketing Group, awarded the class their diplomas, alongside the program’s director, Lynnette Buffington, Membership Outreach Manager + HR, Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber and assistant program director, Natasha Johnson, Marketing and Membership Outreach Intern, Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber.
“This is a very unique program, where kids can actually launch real businesses or social movements”, said Buffington. This year’s enterprises range from Sunny Beginnings, producing fresh, individually-jarred breakfast muffin and oatmeal mixes to Teen Tech Tutors, providing one-on-one technology support services to the community, especially for the elderly or otherwise challenged.
The Young Entrepreneurs Academy (YEA!) is a groundbreaking program that guides students in grades 6-12 through the process of starting a real business, including business plan development, pitching an investor panel, obtaining funding, launching the venture, managing media campaigns, e-commerce and web development, sales events, and trade shows. Students, ages 11 to 18, are taught to recognize the power of their ideas, and to develop the skills necessary to turn those ideas into meaningful enterprises. The following students make up Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber’s inaugural YEA! class:
- Bellarmine Prep: Gracie Weiss, ninth grade.
- Lincoln High School: Arthur Hagen, twelfth grade; and Cyrus Singleton, twelfth grade.
- Mount Tahoma High School: Jessica Bokoskie, twelfth grade; and Lyric Swanson, twelfth grade.
- Stadium High School: LaMondtra Atkins, eleventh grade; and Sam Wheelock, ninth grade.
- Tacoma School of the Arts: Madison Chavez, eleventh grade.
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Photo: (in the back) Jeff Brown, Graduation Keynote Speaker and Chamber Chair, Natasha Johnson, YEA! Assistant Program Director and Lynnette Buffington, YEA! Program Director. (top row) Lyric Swanson, LaMondtra Atkins, Madison Chavez and Arthur Hagen. (bottom row) Jessica Bokoskie, Sam Wheelock and Gracie Weiss.
About the Young Entrepreneurs Academy
The Young Entrepreneurs Academy or YEA!, is a groundbreaking educational program that takes students in grades six through twelve through the process of starting and running real businesses over the course of a full academic year. Students work in close cooperation with local leaders of industry, community members, and educators to develop ideas and objectives, write business plans, pitch potential investors, obtain funding, register with governmental agencies, develop their brand identity and much more! By the end of the class, students own and operate fully functioning businesses that can be carried on after graduation. Students learn to make a job--not just take a job.
YEA!’s direct mission is to help students embrace their passion, energy, creativity and talents, launch a venture, and view entrepreneurship as synonymous with success and freedom. In 2008, YEA! “spun-off” from the University of Rochester, where it was formed in 2004 with support from the Kauffman Foundation, to create its own not-for-profit corporation, YEA! Inc., which is currently launching sites in colleges, universities and high schools across the country to provide comprehensive, exciting entrepreneurship education, leadership development and innovation training to youth between the ages of 11 and 18 years old in the United States thereby making the program available to students at a variety of geographical regions, and providing them with skills they need to succeed in the 21st Century. For more information about the Young Entrepreneurs Academy, please call 253.682.1726 or visit tacomachamber.com/content/yea