PROGRAM
NEXT
PROFILE
student advances to a regional
competition in Rochester,
NY, where they will compete
to earn a spot in the Young
Entrepreneurs Academy
National Saunders Scholarship
Competition, which is held
at America’s Small Business
Summit. It’s really an incredible
opportunity that few people in
the world get, let alone those
still in high school.
For our inaugural year, we
sent Mukai Selekwa, founder
and president of Webblen,
to the regional competition
as our local representative.
Mukai is an inspirational
young entrepreneur that has
continually impressed all of us
involved in the program and he
has embraced everything that
YEA! taught him. He continues
to see professional success as
he prepares to start college in
the fall at NSDU.
Last month, Mukai spoke at
1 Million Cups Fargo, and this
month he is speaking at the
2016 State of Technology,
which is one of the Chamber’s
events with Senator John
Hoeven, alongside local leaders
in the tech industry and the
company-wide president of
Microsoft, Brad Smith. This is
just one example of a student
who has been able to use YEA!
as a launching pad to expedite
his path to a successful future.
YEA! is an incredibly unique
program, and I hope to see
more students thrive as a result
of their participation. We wanted
to bring YEA! here because it
fit into the Chamber’s mission
of promoting economic growth
and prosperity and we’re
now achieving this by helping
our young peop le establish
themselves in the local business
community and hopefully create
jobs in the future.
Reach out to the students you
know and tell them about this
remarkable opportunity. Only
24 students are accepted into
the program each year, and
spots are filling quickly. We’re
also looking for professionals to
serve as instructors, mentors
and guest speakers during our
next year.
If you would like more
information, please contact
YEA! Program Coordinator
Katie Ralston at
[email protected]
or 218.359.0511
Or simply apply at
fmwfchamber.com/yea by
September 30.
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