Entrepreneur and Leadership Program

The goal of the Entrepreneur and Leadership Program is to provide leadership training to youth, to teach them about business structures and to teach them how to design, organize and plan projects to meet specific goals. Middle and high school boys and girls will also learn skills and engage in activities that will build self-esteem, increase confidence, and enhance ability to overcome obstacles in daily life. The aim is remove “failure” as an option. Strong communication skills, both written and verbal are emphasized as we work through lessons on the concepts taught in the sessions.

Specifically, youth learn how to lead a team and work within a team to achieve shared objectives. They are taught how to consider and implement components of a project, such as:

• Concept and Design
• Resourcing and Staffing
• Production
• Marketing and Communication
• Business Structures
• Banking and Money Management, and
• Project Evaluation

Another goal is to teach youth to dream big and value hard work towards worthy goals. Some previous iterations of the program included a field trip to a local hospital with a discussion on the results of gun violence, how transplants save lives, a visit to an operating room and the morgue, and introductions to the variety of careers in the medical field. Having completed the 8-week program, one group continued meeting and set a goal to raise funds for a bus trip to Washington DC. There, they toured the Smithsonian Museums, the Capitol building, the M.L. King Memorial and the Lincoln Monument.