Youth CITIES (Creating Impact Through Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Sustainability) is a program that introduces high school students to social entrepreneurship.
This rigorous bootcamp inspires, educates, and equips youth to take action and make a difference. Its mission: to empower students to use the principles of entrepreneurship to drive change in their communities. Youth CITIES moves beyond the academics of building businesses, framing real-life problems, real-life constraints, and real-life criteria as the launch pad for students to create a value-driven, sustainable solution to a real-life market opportunity.
Youth CITIES partners with prominent executives from the business and nonprofit community who teach fundamentals of leadership, entrepreneurship, presentation skills, and business plan creation, and share strategies for leveraging business principles to impact society. Students compete in teams to start-up and build a social venture to solve real-world problems. The top 3 teams will present their ventures to a panel of judges. The prize? $1500 in seed grant funding and the benefit of a hand-selected Advisory Board to help launch a prototype/pilot of the winning social venture.
This program covers a lot of information, and each class builds off of the prior one. It is important for students to attend all of the classes so as to not fall behind. If there are special circumstances (such as SAT’s), please let Vicky know in advance.
The following is an outline of the program with key dates that students are required to attend:
KICK-OFF RECEPTION
March 8th, 2012 (Thursday) @ 6pm:
Keynote Speaker: J. Justin Pasquariello, Founder and Chairman of AFC Mentoring
This will be an opportunity for students to get a glimpse of what social entrepreneurship is, and hear the experience of successful social entrepreneur J. Just Pasquariello. Students and parents will also meet and network with some of the Youth CITIES instructors, mentors, and judges. Course curriculum and workbooks will also be handed out.
CLASSES
March 10th through May 12th (every Saturday from 9am-12pm):
Learn about different types of ventures, basic principles of entrepreneurship, how to incorporate community-giving while still generating profit, why a venture needs money, and presentation skills, etc. Classroom lectures, case studies, role-playing, and mock-pitches will be used to teach business fundamentals. Weekly take-home assignments will lead up to a completed Powerpoint presentation and oral pitch of student venture idea.
SEMI-FINALS
May 12th (9am-12pm):
Semi-final presentations – all ventures will present. Parents are encouraged to attend.
FINALIST PITCHES AWARDS LUNCHEON
May 19th (10am-1pm):
Top 3 ventures will present their pitch for funding ($1,500) and support network to launch a pilot program. Lunch and awards ceremony will follow. This event is open to all students and their respective families, program judges/mentors/instructors, and special guests.
All program events/classes will be held at Microsoft at One Memorial Drive in Cambridge.
