YEA!  
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Introducing: Young Entrepreneurs Academy
Beginning with the 2010-11 school year, the Johnstown School District will be an area frontrunner, and one of only 16 schools state-wide, to offer students the opportunity to participate in a groundbreaking educational program known as the Young Entrepreneurs Academy (YEA!). Administered as a credit-bearing elective through the high school business department, YEA! will partner with the local business community to provide students in grades 9-12 with a course that takes them through all of the steps of starting and running a real company.

Launched at the University of Rochester in 2004, YEA! distinguishes itself from other entrepreneurial programs in that students actually form and control legally-registered enterprises. Participating students may also become eligible for the opportunity to receive scholarship awards from the Rochester Institute of Technology. As part of the YEA! program, students learn a firsthand approach to creating a business plan, marketing a new business/idea, creating a prototype, making a pitch to potential investors, participating in trade shows, filing a DBA, procuring an EIN number, opening a bank account, developing marketing materials and launching an actual business or social movement. The YEA! program also includes a direct connection to members of the local business community, who will act as field trip hosts, guest speakers and mentors, serve on the YEA! investor panel and help students to interact with the media.

During a presentation at the August 12, 2010 Board of Education meeting, Patricia Kilburn, District Director of Curriculum, Testing & Personnel, explained that the YEA! program format requires the assistance of 13 local businesses and that she reached out to the Fulton County of Chamber of Commerce to garner that support on behalf of the district. Local businesses that make a donation as investors enjoy the privilege of joining in on the Investor Panel Presentation, an exciting year-end culminating event in which students will have six minutes to pitch their idea to a panel of judges and seek funding for their businesses in a format similar to The Apprentice or Shark Tank. Local businesses interested in collaborating with Johnstown’s YEA! program in the future should contact Mrs. Kilburn at 762-4611, ext. 101.

To learn more about the program, read the inspiring YEA! success stories of past program enrollees.

View YEA! informational video on YouTube *
View longer YEA! overview video on YouTube *

*YouTube site is not accessible on computers linked to GJSD servers.
 
 

 

 

 

 

 


  
 

 
         
   
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