Part of Fortitude Technology’s corporate charter is to give back to the community. As part of that charter we lean towards helping build an entrepreneurial spirit and tend to partner up with groups that are working with the next generation. The latest cool program that we jumped into is YEP-Youth Entrepreneurship Program. Just like it sounds the purpose of YEP is to help students experience entrepreneurship. YEP’s slogan is: “Teaching Students How to Make a Job, Instead of Take a Job.”
Through a LinkedIn group I got introduced to the program through a gentleman named James Hayes. James is the Youth Entrepreneurship Program Coordinator at Mira Costa College in Oceanside, CA. The latest marketing challenge that YEP put on featured 11 High Schools and Colleges with 230 students from those schools creating “the Perfect Marketing Campaign.” Here is the link t the website http://www.yepmarketingchallenge.com/index.html James went out and solicited businesses to provide feedback to students on their marketing activities and then pick a winner for their company.
The cool part about this program is we got to work with students and provide feedback as a marketing plan was hatched and then evolved as our students worked to win a prize of $250. Over the course of a month students that selected Fortitude Technology presented us with:
- Logo
- Slogan
- Flyer
- Brochure
- A Social Media Strategy
- Websites
Our winning student was Katie Schmidt. I got to be lucky enough to present Katie with a $250 check, which was really fun. It was great to see how excited the crowd of students got when the winners name was announced. Then after she got the check to see how many kids came up and jokingly told her they thought she owed them money. I can’t wait to do it again next year!
