One Hundred Local High School Students Get Real-World Business Training

The Young Entrepreneurs Project (YEP), a program of MiraCosta College’s Small Business Development Center (SBDC) teamed up with Virtual Enterprise (VE) of California to host a high school student business conference on October 15. More than 100 students, from 10 different high schools, in two different counties, came together to discover what it takes to make it in business. The event was held at the North County Regional Education Center, a state-of-the-art technology center in San Marcos.

The event started with an impactful speech from Sheryl Bilbrey, the CEO of the Better Business Bureau of San Diego and Imperial Counties. She stressed the importance of ethics in business, as well as in life. This was followed up by a speech from Joe Molina, a Small Business Development Center coordinator, who spoke about the benefits of the Young Entrepreneurs Project. Afterwards, dressed in professional attire, students role-played as business professionals. Later, students attended training seminars in accounting, sales, marketing, leadership, banking, human resources and Web design. These training seminars were conducted either by Virtual Enterprise coordinators or Small Business Development Center consultants.

These students were selected as representatives of their Virtual Enterprise (VE) class in their respective schools, where they have been in the process of forming an online virtual company. This year, each VE class will be participating in a business plan competition through the Young Entrepreneurs Project, which will award the finalists on December 10, 2009 at the North County Regional Education Center. Students will then have to present their business plans to a panel of judges, consisting of business professionals throughout San Diego County.

The Young Entrepreneurs Project is a comprehensive program that explains to young people, ages 13-27, that starting your own business can be a career choice. The project gives students and teachers online entrepreneurship curriculum for free and allows those students to participate in a business plan competition with awards up to $1000.

Virtual Enterprise is a course in which students set up and run a simulated business in order to prepare them for working in a real business environment. With the guidance of a teacher and real-world business partners, the students determine the nature of their business, its products and services, its management and structure, and engage in the daily operations of running a business.

This event was organized by James Hayes, a Young Entrepreneurs Project Coordinator and a ROP Virtual Enterprise Instructor for the Vista Unified School District, who wished to give high school students more exposure to the business world by creating an experience for them to act as business professionals. Although their businesses are virtual, their ideas, enthusiasm and experience are REAL.

For more information, please contact Joe Molina at (760) 757-2121 ext. 8743.