Diddy, Kimora Lee, Shawn Carter, watch your backs. There are some teens on the rise coming for your jobs soon. At a YMCA center on 63rd Street and Fifth Avenue, there was a competition that was held to teach ten of Harlem's brightest students about leadership, entrepreneurship, and how to run their own business their own businesses. They are 11th and 12th graders today, but we can only imagine what they may
accomplish in the future.

The competition was created by the BizAcademy, which is an organization that gives inner-city youth the chance to run their own businesses. These selected few students learn all the aspects of how to run their own businesses. The students look at how a company functions
from many different angles, from garnering income, to managing the finances, creating their own product, and marketing that product. On top of all that, the students get to keep the money they make, well, after they pay all their funders of course. Still, we all know that
teenagers love that paper with the presidents on them.

I got the opportunity to talk to three established women who took parts in putting the project together. Kimberly Hunt is a community service development manager for "SalesForce Foundation." Susan Bobb is a program coordinator for "Opening Doors and Building Bridges Youth Development & After School Program." She is also responsible for recruiting students into that program. Collette D. Ellis is the principal of "Instep Consulting: Integrating Strategies to Enhance Performance." All three were motivated, intelligent, and more than willing to help our future be our future. We definitely need more people like that.
Kimberly Hunt told me more about how the BizAcademy got
started.

"We found out about Bizworld International programs, which is
another organization that teaches entrepreneurship to younger students.
We liked the idea, and tailored it to be specifically for the youth,
such as yourself." (referring to me,) "We changed our name to 'Academy' because we wanted it to be geared towards the youth."
The competition isn't only in New York, or the United States
for that matter. The headquarters for BizAcademy is located in San
Francisco, and the competition has also been held in Tokyo and
Singapore.Talk about being international!

Soon they'll be in outer space! She continued, "It is a two-week program, and it teaches the students how to run their own businesses, complete with presidents, vice presidents of sales, marketing and manufacturing.The students apply to the competition. We have ten kids, and we divide them into two teams. They are the ones that pick the products, make the products, and sell the products." It's good that there isn't a tight leash on the students. They have the opportunity to do what they want, and with the oh so vivid imagination that teenagers have, there's no telling what could be produced.

As I glanced over to the tables, I noticed that the teams had
decided on making picture frames and candles. Very decorative products, as the picture frames were painted with one hue, with phrases, like Golden Child written in another color. One team even had frames
with astrological signs on them. That must have been popular, because out of twelve signs, there were only four frames when I arrived.
The candles were impressive. The candles were placed in a 3-D
star-shaped glass, and covered in a colored sand. They really had
things that everyday people would buy, and that's always a good thing.
On top of learning the skills of marketing, they were also having a
good time with it.

However, those weren't the only attributes that the students were to gain from the experience."We want them to gain self-confidence, exposure, and more importantly, knowledge," said Ms. Hunt. "We want them to see what it is to be a salesperson and own and manage a business." When I asked who was winning, they really couldn't tell because the competition wouldn't be over until it was over. Susan Bobb stated, "We really have to wait until all of them are finished selling their products, and gain all of their revenue. Then, they have to give a percentage of that back to their funders. Tomorrow, after all of that is finished, then we Ms. Hunt, Ms. Ellis, and herself will determine the final winner.

Another cool thing is the fact that everyone gets that recognition. Ms. Bobb continued, "They have been able to network, meet people, send e-mails to officials in high positions for different
companies, and even make commercials for their products. Besides taking splitting up their earnings, both teams pick a "Most Valuable Employee" for their respective teams."The competition sounded like a lot of fun, and the competitors didn't disagree with my assumption. Jaine Walker of team Vene' said, "It was very interesting. I got to meet new people and investors from Okere (a company).We still owe them money, but I had fun. I have no complaints."

Khadija Ahkter agreed adamantly. "I loved the experience and had fun meeting new people." Their table had nicely made products, but I was attracted to other team more. I think it was because of their basket of free candy. I went over to ask them more about their company. Shatarah and Grace of team "Capture the Moment" were stationed at the table when I went over. "I had fun speaking to people at networking parties and making contacts. It was very fun," said Shatarah. Grace agreed with her companion. "I learned a lot of the dynamics needed in business, such as planning and pitching your products. It was very beneficial. I definitely feel like I learned something." Enough said.