Young Entrepreneurs Academy

Young Entrepreneurs Academy (YEA) provides elementary and middle school students with an opportunity to learn fundamental entrepreneurial and business skills. SJSU business students create lessons accompanied by interactive activities to deliver various business topics, including Ideation, Operations Management, Finance and Financial Management, Motivating a Business Team, Sales, and Conflict Resolution.

During the 2024-25 academic year, Professor Pamela Wells’s BUS 160, The Fundamentals of Management and Organizational Behavior, and BUS 161A, Applied Organizational Behavior classes collaborated with CommUniverCity to deliver interactive workshops to participating schools. After being split into within-class learning teams, each SJSU business team was responsible for preparing a 30-minute interactive presentation to teach business topics to elementary and middle schoolers.

Complex entrepreneurial topics were made simple through activities like running a lemonade stand, buying and selling using toys and pseudo currencies, and Monopoly-style game lessons. Also, young learners were led through exercises on how to create a business idea. These workshops not only introduced elementary and middle school students to key business concepts but also allowed SJSU students to apply their academic knowledge in realworld settings, fostering a sense of community and inspiring the next generation of entrepreneurs.

Early introduction to entrepreneurship and associated business skills plants the seeds of possibilities for future success in young learners, and teaching concepts to others helps college students apply theory to real life…a win-win.

Project Impacts

Through YEA, CommUniverCity impacted 257 community members (elementary and middle school students at Bachrodt, Empire Gardens, Sacred Heart Nativity, and Washington ), teach them a new business topic, and meet college students.

88% of participants learned more about managing a business after the workshops, and 67% were interested in starting a business in the future,

Elementary students reported they learned about “money management” and and “how to save money”.

Participants*

Community Engaged Learners*

Cumulative Hours

Investment Value*

$ 0 K

Faculty Lead

Pamela Wells (Management)

What people say?

My degree revolves around the interaction of people and technology. This project has given me the experience to interact with young entrepreneurs that many adults don’t get the opportunity to do.

SJSU Business Student

My favorite part of this project was collaborating with my group members by exchanging ideas and suggestions. I learned how to adapt through a pandemic and problem solve that way.

SJSU Business Adminstration student

[The entrepreneurship kits] sound like an amazing opportunity for our students and families.

Cydney Eshleman, Muwekma

Ohlone Middle School counselor

* Community Participants include K–12 students engaged in educational activities and workshops, along with residents attending neighborhood events and celebrations.

* Community Engaged Learners (CEL) include SJSU students who apply course-based knowledge through activities and presentations for K–12 students, as well as Public Health, Communications, and Educational Counseling interns who work directly with the CommUniverCity team to implement projects.

* Investment Value encapsulates the total monetary worth of the CEL volunteer hours contributed to the project.