The West Monroe West Ouachita Chamber of Commerce will hold a Future Entrepreneur Academy for teenagers entering the grades 9-12. The six-day free event aims to ignite entrepreneurial passion and kick start student's journey to success.
The Entrepreneural Academy will consist of students collaborating with their selected team members to come up with a business plan. While doing so they will gain the knowledge of how to start a business, marketing, branding, and more.
Attendees will also take a trip to City Hall and visit the mayor along with the permitting office to learn about getting a license/permit and zoning.
The academy will finish with each team presenting their business pitch at Delta Community College and ULM.
The event is limited to only 50 students. Students must fill out an application as well as their parent or guardian signing a waiver to commute their student each day of the event.
The dates for the entrepreneur academy will be July 11 & 14-18. Each day will begin at 8:30 a.m. and conclude at 2 p.m.
Margaret Troquille, the mentoring program coordinator for the WMWO Chamber of Commerce, talks about what the event is and what students will gain by attending the entrepreneur academy. "It's kind of like a Shark Tank on steroids," Troquille states.
"Students are learning networking techniques... they are also learning from industry experts in the field of financial and governmental entities," she mentions.
The WMWO Chamber of Commerce is also hosting a career mentoring program. This program will also be tailored to students in grades 9-12, and they will be matched up with a business leader.
For eight months, students will meet monthly with their respective business leader to develop career skills, as well as personal and professional growth.
The program will begin in September, so the cut off to apply will be in August. Business leaders are still needed for the program and are highly encouraged to sign-up to be a mentor.
More information about the Future Entrepreneur Academy can be found at https://www.westmonroechamber.org/fea/.
To learn more about the career mentoring program and how to become a mentor visit https://www.westmonroechamber.org/mentoring-program/ or contact Margaret Troquille at mentor@westmonroechamber.org.
