$7,500 to support the “Own a Business, Own Your Future: So You Want to be an Entrepreneur” program which exposes 200 high school students ages 16-18 to entrepreneurship through field trips and workshops designed to provide tools to write and present a business plan for competition. A subsequent award celebration for participants and those who launch businesses will follow.
Posted By Toni Glasscoe,
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
The Office of K-12 Initiatives and Career Preparation is
planning an event for Friday, October 8, from 3:30 to 7:00 in room 134 of the
Gannon Building on the downtown campus of Lansing Community College (LCC).
Anyone in Ingham, Eaton, or Clinton counties who received a
high school diploma in 2010 and are currently operating a business can apply to
pitch for $1000 cash awards to support their endeavor.
Young entrepreneurs interested in pitching will submit an
application and a copy of their business plans by the end of September. A panel
of judges made up of local entrepreneurs and LCC business faculty will review
the plans prior to the event. On the 8th, the judges will
provide feedback immediately following each student’s pitch.The judges will confer, and winners of
the $1000 cash awards will be announced.
Posted By Toni Glasscoe,
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Upon further consideration Aneri Gonzalez, the winner of our May 2010 competition, decided she could not meet all of our requirements and chose to decline the cash award .
We are planning another pitch for people who received a high school diploma in June 2010. See the next blog entry.
Posted By Toni Glasscoe,
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Updated: Friday, May 28, 2010
On May 11, Lansing Community College (LCC) held its first
Youth Business Plan Competition. Aneri Gonzalez from Everett High School won
the $1000 cash award, funded by a generous grant made from the Coleman
Foundation to LCC’s Own a Business, Own Your Future Youth Entrepreneur Fund.
Aneri graduates in June and already has an impressive
resume. Not only is she the editor of her school newspaper and an LCC HOPE
Scholar, she also has a good start on an exciting portfolio of work for her
company AG designs. During her business plan presentation, Aneri showed
examples of invitations she designed for friends’ parties and a striking poster
for LCC’s Cinco de Mayo event. The audience included Aneri’s mother, her
accounting instructor, LCC faculty, and local business owners. All were wowed by her aesthetics,
professionalism, and passion.
LCC business faculty, a local entrepreneur, and a
representative from the Small Business and Technology Development Center judged
the competition. They recommended Aneri receive the full $1000 and suggested
some refinements and next steps for her business.
During her remarks following the judges' summary and announcement of her win, Aneri credited her accounting instructor, Greg Clugston, for motivating her to participate in the competition and supporting her along the way. She said that without his encouragement, she wouldn't have been there.
Aneri will start attending LCC as a full time student in the fall of 2010. She will
be working at another job while she continues building AG designs, too. We have no doubt she will meet her goals.
To see the application and business plan submission
guidelines for the competition, go to
http://www.lcc.edu/ed/wiredinitiative/oab_news/.
Posted By Toni Glasscoe,
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Updated: Wednesday, April 14, 2010
The Department of K-12
Initiatives has announced the Own a Business, Own Your Future Youth Business Plan Competition will take place on Tuesday, May 11th, from 4:30 to 6:30 on the downtown campus of Lansing Community College.
High school seniors who
are currently operating a business or plan to have started one by the end of
the 2010 school year will pitch for $1000 cash awards to support their
endeavor.
Young entrepreneurs interested in pitching will submit an application and a copy of their business plans by the end of April. A panel of judges made up of local entrepreneurs ad LCC business faculty will review the plans prior to the event. On the 11th, the judges will provide feedback immediately following each student's pitch. The judges will confer, and winners of the $1000 cash awards will be announced.
The February edition of Future CEO Stars has an article about our January 2010 Pitches and Panel Day. See pages 26 ad 27 at this url: http://www.fcsmag.com/node/37
Posted By Toni Glasscoe,
Monday, March 08, 2010
Updated: Monday, March 08, 2010
Planning is underway for the May Own a Business, Own Your Future youth entrepreneur business pitch for cash awards at Lansing Community College (LCC).
We're very excited by student response to this year's entrepreneurship activities and amazed at the ideas our area entrepreneurs are hatching -- including services or businesses that give back to the community.
We expect at least seven seniors from local area high schools to participate in May. Two of the students attended our January Panel and Pitches event and were among those who practiced their pitches for the judges, receiving immediate feedback for both their pitches and the plans they were required to submit ahead of time. (The other students did not pitch because of conflicts with their schedules or lack of time to prepare.)
In the next few weeks, a summary of expectations, business plan guidelines, the evaluation rubric, and criteria for the youth entrepreneurship program fund will be provided to those who have expressed an interest in presenting their business ideas. Prior to the May pitch, participants will complete a brief application and submit their plans. Judges will be able to review the plans before the students pitch for the awards. Time will be allowed for the judges to confer after the pitches and determine who will receive the cash awards.
This award event will take place at LCC's downtown campus. The judges will be local entrepreneurs and/or LCC business faculty.
Posted By Toni Glasscoe,
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Updated: Monday, February 15, 2010
In December 2009 and January 2010, teams of Traveling Experts – LCC faculty, Small Business and Technology Development Center (SBTDC) staff, and local entrepreneurs – went to the students, visiting schools and career centers to talk about business plans, financial preparations, and marketing and to judge pitches. In January, students and their teachers came to LCC for the 2010 Pitches & Panel event. Teams of students and individuals provided business plans ahead of time and then pitched their businesses to three judges. Following the pitches, a panel of three local entrepreneurs talked about their experiences beginning businesses and keeping them going. None of the students pitched for the cash award. Before the end of the 2010 school year, 7 seniors who indicated an interest in pitching for money, donated by the Coleman Foundation, will be invited back. Students who win the seed money will also have to graduate from high school with a 2.0 or better overall GPA, complete an Entrepreneurial Studies course the summer or fall semester after graduating from high school with a 2.0 or better, join the American Marketing Association or other student business club, and work with the SBTDC for one year after launching the business.
Our next step is to choose a date for the next pitch; it will probably be some time in May. We will work with the high school teachers to select a date.
Posted By Toni Glasscoe,
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Updated: Monday, February 15, 2010
Since our last posting we have been busy recruiting students to pitch their ideas, working with high school instructors to prepare their students, and recruiting travel experts and judges. The traveling expert workshops are new this year and allow us to go to the schools and provide assistance instead of spending time assisting students and teams the day of the pitch. We have had quite a few inches of snow in the past 2-3 weeks and this has caused us to have to reschedule several of our high school visits. We have a diverse audience of students to include a group of students completing their GEDs as well as a rural and suburban high schools.
We will be reviewing business plans this week and finalizing the details of the January 21 event. Our biggest challenge is getting students to pitch for the seed money. It looks like we will have several to pitch for practice, and we hope to have several who will end up pitching for cash. Never fear: we are working on a Plan B just in case we don't have the number of people competing we had hoped to have.
Here are the parameters for the competition: high school seniors who have a business or intend to start a business by graduation will have an opportunity to share their business plans and pitch their businesses to a team of judges (local entrepreneurs) for a cash prize at LCC's 2nd annual youth entrepreneurship event. Students at all levels are welcome to attend on the 21st as guests, but only seniors can compete for the awards. A panel of local entrepreneurs will also talk about their experience starting, building, and sustaining their businesses and take questions from the audience.
More to come............we will keep you updated on our progress.
Posted By Yvette Swint-Blakely,
Friday, November 13, 2009
Updated: Friday, November 13, 2009
On a brisk winter day in February, 2009 high school students from a three county area gathered at Lansing Community College West Campus in Lansing, Michigan for Own a Business, Own Your Future: So You Want to Be an Entrepreneur, a special initiative funded by the federal Department of Labor through the Workforce Innovation and Regional Economic Development (WIRED) Grant and supported by the Mid Michigan Innovation Team (MMIT).
Student teams had worked on a business plan and pitch for a theoretical or actual business for weeks. On February 25th they came for advice and feedback. They reviewed their plans and practiced their pitches with local business owners and LCC faculty acting as coaches who discussed the strengths and weaknesses of the plans and pitches.
Teams made a 5-minute business pitch and shared their improved business plans with local entrepreneurs acting as judges.
The judges conferred and provided the teams with immediate feedback on their pitches. To provide more in depth feedback, the judges studied the business plans after the event and provided more detailed written feedback to students within a week.
Before the work of the day began, the students heard from Ryan Carter, a local entrepreneur who has met with success in more than one enterprise.
Organizers built on the strength of successful local entrepreneurs, the Small Business and Technology Development Center, LCC business faculty, Student Leadership Academy students, and members of the LCC chapter of the American Marketing Association to staff the event.
Plans for the 2010 competition are underway, and we are excited: due to the Coleman Grant, we will be able to give away cash awards. Stay tuned!
Print to Page
Blog Home
All Blogs
RSS
