CUSD Moving Forward in Addressing No Child Left Behind Sanctions
High School Exit Exam Again Rattling Some Students’ Dreams
Raymond Street Park Still Not Open to Public
LA Prosecutor Taken Off Case of Slain Football Star
Pet Vaccination Clinic to Be Held at Gonzales Park
Compton Student Headed to Oxford, Cambridge Universities After Winning International Essay Contest
Local Woman Pays Tribute to ‘Legendary’ Female Friends
120 Years of Compton: Residents Revel at Birthday Bash
Joseph
Phillips:
This Crazy Mixed Up World
New
Opportunity for Young Entrepreneurs at El Camino
New program
offers training for prospective businessmen and women ages 14 – 27
By
Cheryl Scott
Bulletin Staff Writer
El
Camino College is offering an opportunity at its Hawthorne campus for
young, would-be entrepreneurs to get training from experts in their
field of interest as well as financing for starting their businesses.
The Young Entrepreneurial Program will hold its first Summer Buzz on
Biz Academy at the El Camino College Business Training Center, 13430
Hawthorne Blvd., next month. The deadline for applications is June
13.
The program is open to anyone between the ages of 14 and 27 who is
interested in starting a business.
“Our young people face so many challenges and obstacles that
the best way for them to proceed with their professional life is to
become entrepreneurs,” said
Alex Vaughan, director of the program. “We have successful people
from all fields of business who will be working with the students and
providing them with opportunities to see what goes on behind the scenes
in various businesses.”
One field trip scheduled for the academy is a 90-minute tour of the
Port of Long Beach that will be made possible by a program adviser
who is employed with port management. Another will be a trip to observe
the sound check for the Grammy Award show arranged by someone in the
recording industry.
The program was developed by Vaughan and Program Manager Dr. Giovanna
Brasfield.
“The program is designed to give students real-world experience
in five high-growth businesses, which include food, technology, entertainment,
fashion and services. It is open to anyone from 14 to 27 from a wide
area that includes Compton, Inglewood, Watts, Gardena, Torrance and
Hawthorne. It’s also free.”
A prospective participant need not have concrete plans for starting
a specific business, Brasfield said. “We have resources that
will help them to transfer their area of interest into a plan for getting
into a particular business. We will help them focus their passion to
develop a business idea. Many enterprising young people have the talent
and organizational skills to operate a business, but they are choosing
the wrong activities. For instance, a drug dealer on the corner may
be a businessman waiting for an opportunity. Someone who babysits may
be an excellent candidate for starting a business in child care.”
The program is funded for two years, but sponsors from the private
sector are being sought to be used as resources if government funding
should stop.
“We are working with the financial and loan industry,” said
Vaughan. “We
are also developing resources that could fund start-up businesses through
loans. Our program will teach all aspects of business, from the development
of a business plan to marketing and sales. Once a student has graduated
from the program, he will be qualified to speak in business terminology
to professionals in the field of finance for the purpose of securing
a loan to start his business venture.”
The application process for the academy involves an entry essay in
which the applicant explains why he should be accepted into the program. “For
those under 17, we require parental permission,” said Brasfield.
“We are hoping to get 100 participants in our 2008 Buzz on Biz
Academy,” said
Vaughan. “We already have 25 signed up. We are hoping that out
of the 100 participants 60 or so will sign up for another year.”
Brasfield has been with El Camino College since October. She works
with a Caltrans program that encourages minority and women business
owners by offering contracts for services it needs.
“Caltrans has a child care service for its employees,” Brasfield
said. “So it has contracts available for vendors to provide that
service. It also has a large real estate and property management division
that deals with the acquisition of property for future projects and
the management of those properties until they are used.”
This experience has given her experience in guiding entrepreneurial-minded
people in starting their own businesses.
Vaughan is an adjunct professor at Long Beach City College. “I
was in the private sector for 22 years,” she said. “I worked
for Johnson Publications, which was the parent company for several
nationally distributed magazines, cosmetic lines and high-end department
stores.”
As a professor teaching marketing, advertising and management, she
has developed a curriculum that has been folded into the Young Entrepreneurship
Program.
The academy will run for 10 weeks beginning June 21. In October a graduation
ceremony, to be called the “Academy Awards,” will be held
at a venue to be determined during the summer.
An orientation for the program will be held on Saturday, May 31, at
the Hawthorne location at 3 p.m.
The Young Entrepreneurial Program is offered under the auspices
of the Small Business Development Centers, which
are funded by the Small
Business Administration and the California Economic Workforce and
Development Program.
ADVERTISE | CLASSIFIEDS | ABOUT US | CONTACT US | SUBSCRIBE | HOME
This site and its contents ©2008 thecomptonbulletin.com