Boca Chamber’s YEA Accepting Applications for 2017-18 Academic Year

By: Gabriel Diaz

The Boca Chamber’s Golden Bell Education Foundation’s Young Entrepreneurs Academy is now welcoming applications for the 2017-2018 academic year.  

The Young Entrepreneurs Academy also known as YEA! is a nine-month program put on by The Boca Chamber that walks students in grades 6-12 through the process of starting their own, real businesses.

In the YEA! program, students brainstorm business ideas, decide if they want to work by themselves or with a team of their choosing, they write a business plan for their business and even pitch their plan to investors for funding.

After all of these processes are complete, the students are then ready to start up their business.

One of the greatest success stories is about Rachel Zietz, who started her business, Gladiator Lacrosse at age 13 after attending The Boca Raton Young Entrepreneurs Academy.

In the Academy, she was able to raise $2,700. After appearing on the hit TV show “Shark Tank”, Rachel’s company now has annual revenue of over $3 million.

This will mark the seventh consecutive year that the Boca Chamber hosts this program for young students in Boca Raton. The application deadline to enroll in the Academy is September 15, 2017.