Volunteers Help YEA! Students in Business Planning Process

Visalia, CA –The Young Entrepreneurs Academy, or YEA!, an innovative program that guides students through the process of starting their own real business, is excited to announce this year’s business mentors and sponsors for this year’s YEA! Class at Hosted by the Visalia & Tulare Chambers of Commerce.

Once the students get the ball rolling on their ideas, YEA! pairs up each business with an appropriate business mentor. This person helps the students to better understand their concept, write a business plan, identify their target audience and provide all around support. This year’s mentor volunteers are:

- Lori Dunagan, Voucher Agent & Financial Coach
- Kurt Hardcastle, Amdal In-Home Care
- Steward Elkin, Fresno State Small Business Development Center
- Vincent Salinas, Fresno State Small Business Development Center
- Terri Sayre, Leadership 4 Life
- Igor Ferreira, Principal Financial
- Brett Taylor, Realty Stars

The opportunity to mentor young entrepreneurs is a win win for me as a community member and business person. The enthusiasm and creativity of the youth and their desire to learn and be successful is refreshing and energizing. I am learning from them and sharing my expertise as well. I am grateful to have the chance to work with YEA! stated Terry A. Sayre Leadership 4 Life Business and Life Coach

As a non-profit organization, YEA! relies on the generosity of the community and of sponsors; people who identify with entrepreneurship and want to help pave the way for our future entrepreneurs. Some help the enterprises get off the ground while others provide financial and in-kind support or volunteer their time and services.

We would like to thank the following sponsors for their support of the 2014-2015 YEA! program in Visalia & Tulare:

- INNOVATE Tulare/Kings County
- Suncrest Bank
- Doing What Matters
- Wells Fargo
- Buckman Mitchell
- Bank of the Sierra
- Holiday Inn Hotel & Conference Center
- Hyde Commercial Real Estate
- Sterling & Smith Funeral Homes
- Amdal In-Home Care
- Land O’Lakes
- Valley Business Bank

We would also like to thank all of the other local businesses who have sponsored YEA! students and individual day sessions and provided volunteer support for the YEA! program.

During the course of the nine-month program, more than 50 local businesses become involved with YEA! at various levels. From helping teach the basics of business to inviting students to tour their companies, our volunteers participate in a variety of capacities. Students work in close cooperation with local business leaders, community leaders and educators who use their personal experiences to demonstrate how to develop ideas and objectives, pitch potential investors, obtain funding, register with governmental agencies, establish e-commerce and a web presence, and much more. By the end of the class, students own and operate fully-formed and functioning businesses, which they can carry out after their graduation from the program.

The Young Entrepreneurs Academy (YEA!)
The Young Entrepreneurs Academy (YEA!) is a groundbreaking and exciting yearlong class that transforms middle and high school students into real, confident entrepreneurs. Throughout the class, students develop business ideas, write business plans, conduct market research, pitch their plans to a panel of investors, and actually launch and run their own real, legal, fully formed companies and social movements. Founded in 2004 at the University of Rochester with support from the Kauffman Foundation, the Young Entrepreneurs Academy today serves thousands of students in communities across America. For more information about the Young Entrepreneurs Academy, please call 585.272.3535 or visit www.yeausa.org