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Young Entrepreneurs Invited To Enroll in Maine’s first Young Entrepreneurs Academy
TOPSHAM–The Young Entrepreneurs Academy, or YEA!, is an innovative program that guides students through the process of starting their own real business. Steven Wallace, President of the Southern Midcoast Maine Chamber is excited to announce the start of the first and only YEA! Academy in Maine with cooperation with Southern New Hampshire University.
YEA! is a groundbreaking program that takes students between the ages of 11 and 18 through the process of starting a launching a real business or social movement over the course of an academic year . By the end of the class, students own and operate fully-formed and functioning businesses, which may be carried after their graduation from the program. YEA! aims at teaching students at an early age how to make a job, not just take a job. YEA! was developed at the University of Rochester with support from The Kauffman Foundation.
“We are excited about the expansion and specifically chose Southern New Hampshire University because of its reputation for academic excellence,” said Gayle Jagel, the CEO and founder of the Young Entrepreneurs Academy. In 2008, YEA! “spun-off” from the University of Rochester and currently operates YEA! sites in colleges, universities and high schools across the country.
The program requires a six-month, 99 hour commitment from its young executives. In that time they brainstorm and form their enterprises, make pitches to potential investors, obtain funding, register their companies with governmental agencies, and actually launch their own company or social movement! Business mentors, graphic designers, and local entrepreneurs support the students throughout the program and all of the learning is real and experiential.
The current sponsors for the 2012 YEA Program are excited about starting this program in Mid Coast Maine. “We are delighted to host the YEA!! Program in our facility, both in our capacity as a member of the Southern Midcoast Maine Chamber, and because SNHU’s academic reputation is business,” states William Yerxa, Director of SNHU’s Brunswick Campus. “As one who started a business at age 8 myself, the logic of engaging our youth in the culture and processes of entrepreneurialism is inescapable…the earlier, the better.”
The Maine State Chamber President, Dana Connors agrees. “We are excited to be a partner in this very promising opportunity,” comments Connors. “As we bring together leaders from the business community, educators and our young people, we build a bridge to the future of Maine, a future and an economy that is strong and vibrant. With its focus on empowering our young people, the Young Entrepreneurs Academy has the ability to spark the spirit of entrepreneurship in them, and to ensure that this deep tradition continues in Maine.”
Students from any school in the Mid Coast region, ages 11 to 18, are invited to apply to attend YEA! Academy, starting in January 2012. For more information, contact Carolyn Farkas-Noe YEA! Program Manager, 725-8797 x 4 or Steven Wallace at 725-8797 x 5, or email at yea@midcoastmaine.com
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, visit www.yeausa.org and for the specific program in the SOuthern Midcoast Maine Chamber region, yea@midcoastmaine.com
Begin as a student and finish as a CEO!©
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