OppenheimerFunds and Young Americans are four years into a five-year agreement to develop and implement two educational elements that will greatly expand Young Americans Entrepreneurs Program beyond its original K-6 student base: Get aHead for Business and the Young Entrepreneurs Tool Kit.

Get aHead for Business is the centerpiece of our partnership, combining interactive classroom learning with real-life experience over three semester-long courses. Students are taught how to start, manage and grow a business. During the second semester, they put their skills into action and run a business inside their school. Current student-run businesses include: coffee carts, school stores with logo items, and catering businesses.

Twenty-seven high schools and approximately 528 students participated in Get aHead for Business Semester One: Starting Your Business. Five high schools offered the second semester curriculum: Running Your Business with nearly 67 students participating in the classroom and coffee cart business on-site at the schools.

All eight of the Young Entrepreneurs Tool Kit guides, employed by young people interested in developing business-building skills, have been completed and are in use at a number of after-school and summer day camp programs throughout the state, in addition to being taught at the Young Americans Center.

Additionally, 113 youth businesses and 187 young entrepreneurs participated in the two annual Young Entrepreneurs Marketplaces sponsored by OppenheimerFunds. Nearly 1000 shoppers came out to support the budding entrepreneurs.

For more information on Young Americans, visit their website at: www.yacenter.org.

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