CONCORD, Mass. - (Business Wire) To celebrate Global Entrepreneurship Week – an initiative aimed at inspiring young people to embrace innovation and creativity – teen business leaders from the Young Entrepreneurs Alliance (YEA), students and faculty from Bunker Hill Community College (BHCC), and local business professionals will come together on November 20, 2009 for a special forum designed to promote hands-on business learning and career networking. The Young Entrepreneurs Alliance (www.YEAworks.org), with programs at six Boston-area schools, helps teens transform their lives and futures through the uniquely empowering experience of running a business. YEA’s innovative, three-year program teaches teens to lead and manage a real, income-generating enterprise based right in their own schools. YEA’s hands-on approach to business education is based on close working partnerships with vocational school teachers, corporate and individual sponsors, business mentors, and local colleges. Over 98 percent of YEA teens graduate high school on time and over 80 percent continue on to college.
The November 20th gathering, sponsored by Wells Asset Management, a financial portfolio management firm based in Westwood, MA (www.wellsassetmanagement.com), will be held at the new BHCC Community Center for Entrepreneurship, which promotes the understanding and growth of entrepreneurial opportunities for BHCC students, alumni and the surrounding community (http://www.bhcc.mass.edu/entrepreneurship).
The day’s program will be built around a live presentation by teens from Digitize, YEA’s student-led digital design firm which is based at Assabet Valley Regional Technical High School in Marlborough, MA (one of the six teen-led YEA businesses.) The presentation will highlight the teens’ custom-designed holiday cards and other design services they have provided for past and current clients including New Balance, M/C Venture Partners, and Middlesex Savings Bank. A question-and-answer session and business networking luncheon will follow the presentation, allowing YEA and Bunker Hill students to practice crucial business etiquette and social skills and interact with local business leaders.
BHCC students will also lead YEA teens on a campus tour and introduce them to BHCC’s new electronic gaming development facility.
“Successful entrepreneurship is about getting people together to exchange and leverage ideas and energy,” says Dr. Bogusia Wojciechowska, Dean of Professional Studies and Director of the BHCC Community Center for Entrepreneurship. “We are thrilled to have the opportunity to bring our students and YEA teens together with local entrepreneurs as a fresh catalyst for learning.”
YEA Executive Director Julie Nessen adds, “Our teens learn about business and professionalism through first-hand experience. Having YEA teens interact with college students, faculty and local business people is a great way to help shape their academic and professional aspirations.”
YEA hopes this event will be the beginning of an active educational partnership with BHCC. As part of its Stairway to Success initiative, YEA is developing partnerships with a select number of higher education institutions and businesses in the Boston area. Interested companies and business professionals can find out more by contacting the YEA Stairway to Success Project Director Mark Holman at Mark.Holman@YEAworks.org.
McNeil Communications
Jennifer McNeil, 508-380-2902
jmcneilcomms@yahoo.com
