Youth Entrepreneurs of Atlanta Challenges Young Students to Tap into their Entrepreneurial Spirit

I was sitting at my desk talking to a customer and they asked me if I was interested in volunteering with a company that worked with kids, and my response was “sure”. I gave her my email and she sent me information for the director of the program and after a few exchanged emails I made a trip to Morehouse College to meet the kids. It was summer time and I was so impressed by the kids that I begged her to invite me back out to work with the kids.

The not for profit organization invites volunteers out to work with young students on their business ideas and in turn those business ideas used in competition against other school organizations. I’ve heard great ideas and great ideas with intricate and thorough explanation of how the kids are going to work on making their ideas reality. What I would do is I would ask them questions about their idea and give them an overall critique. The students worked together in teams and individually.

One group came up with non sweat sport clothing line that would compete Under Armor, Nike, and Addidas, but their line of products would be marketed for cheap and non resistant. They even told me where the clothes would be made. This non-profit challenged young kids to think and be leaders. Plus their staff was incredible.

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Youth Entrepreneurs™ of Atlanta (YE-Atl) is an educational program sponsored in Atlanta by Georgia-Pacific LLC Inaugural classes began August 2006 at Mays High School and Southside High School. The program seeks to teach at-risk high school students the fundamentals of free enterprise and essentials for entering the business world as an owner or an employee who thinks like an owner.

The Youth Entrepreneurs™ program was initiated in Wichita, Kansas, during the 1991-1992 school year, by the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation. Youth Entrepreneurs of Kansas (YEK) has since expanded into nineteen high schools in the Wichita, as well as several high schools in Topeka, Lawrence and Kansas City, Kansas.

When Koch Industries acquired Georgia-Pacific in December 2005, there was strong interest in expanding the entrepreneurship education program into the metro Atlanta area. Recognizing the value to the students and community, Georgia-Pacific and Atlanta Public Schools seized this opportunity to develop well informed, business savvy young people who will begin to think like owners. The program consists of curriculum developed by the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship as well as numerous hands-on activities to keep students fully engaged as they learn.

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