Youth Entrepreneur Academy, a program for grades 6 to 12, comes to Connecticut

Danbury, CT -- The Youth Entrepreneur Academy, or YEA!, is a program for grades 6-12 where students design and create their own business, complete with market research, business plans, and investors. With YEA, students will cultivate their own ideas into a real business, social movement, or non-profit, and have the opportunity to launch their program into their community. YEA students have been featured in the New York Times, Good Morning America, and Shark Tank, some creating multi-million dollar businesses. Out of the 4,000 who have already been a part of this program, 3,000 have gone on to be entrepreneurs. Seventy-five locations have already formed across the country, and the first to Connecticut is coming this fall.

Jennifer Zinki, Executive Director of the Connecticut branch, held a press conference on Wednesday to share details of this upcoming opportunity. YEA is a 30-week program, running out of WestConn in Danbury. YEA will be open to students across Connecticut who are interested and passionate about entrepreneurship, selected for the program through an application you can fill out today. YEA has impressive statistics: 99% of YEA students enroll in college, and 56% of YEA students are under served minorities, a fact that Zinzi shares is “very rewarding” for her to be a part of in our community.

The program will feature eight guest speakers, six field trips to businesses and franchises, and mentors for each student, creating a very hands on, interactive experience. Bobbi Jo Beers, Program Manager in Connecticut, spoke to this, sharing that this would not be a lecture hall experience. Kids will be interacting with one another, with their work, and with their instructors three hours a week after school. The program will end with a pop-up shop of the students businesses, a mock investor panel awarding kids real money for their businesses, and scholarships on the table as well. YEA does not show kids how to create a business - they create a real, fully-functioning business with each student.

Every student who leaves this program will walk away from it with both their own business, and a whole new set of skills in their toolbox. YEA creates “a culture where students are okay with making mistakes,” shared superintendent of Ridgefield schools, Dr. Karen Baldwin, where students will learn that mistakes will happen and oftentimes will get you where you need to be. Rudy Marconi, 1st selectman of Ridgefield, spoke to this as well, looking forward to seeing students creating their own ideas and figuring out how to make them tangible with the resilience this program will teach. Anne Mead, superintendent of Danbury schools, knows that YEA will inspire children out of early childhood ready to take risks. These businesses, started at an early age, may help many students pay for college, erasing a lot of the college debt many millennials face and taking away some of the fear of really pursuing and making something out of the businesses these students are creating with YEA. Kids come into their own with YEA, making innovation a mindset that permeates the area of the program.

YEA at WestConn will run from November 2017 to May 2018. Applications are currently being accepted at this link, and children can be nominated for consideration by clicking here. The program costs $995 per student, but Beers makes it clear that no child that is qualified will be turned away from this program if they cannot pay the full fee. An information session will be held for students and families on August 1st at WestConn at 6pm. You can read about a few successful YEA students here.

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Submitted by Fairfield, CT

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