“Be Your Own Boss” Entrepreneurship series at SMAHS
The Community Education Center’s (CEC) DISCOVER Partnership teamed up with Leigh Aaron, St. Marys Area High School counselor, for the “Be Your Own Boss” Entrepreneurship program. Ninth grade students started with a lesson provided by Amy Goode, CEC program manager, to introduce the topic, which was followed by a series of guest speakers who included Olivia Pistner, Creative State of Mind; Rachelle DeLullo, DEA DeLullo Cosmetics; Bradd Celidonia, Keystone Corner Lunch; Melissa Gornati, Sugar Mama’s Bakery and Adrienne Beimel, 6 Little Monkeys.
One of the common messages throughout from the speakers was to “follow your passion” when deciding what type of business to start, along with “fill a need” in your community. Most claimed that owning a business is “a lot of work” despite what they hear on social media. Bradd Celidonia finished with “be OK with failing and learning to pivot”.
Students completed an interest survey to assess their skills and see how entrepreneurial they are and a post reflection to see if owning a business may be a career interest for their future. Almost 50% of students agreed that the program increased their awareness of entrepreneurship as a career choice they had not considered. As one student stated,
“This career interests me because I would love to help my community”. Another student claimed, “While the speakers were talking about their passion and business, you could see the light in their eyes and how happy they are and that makes me want to maybe start my own business”.
If you would like to be a guest speaker for future programs, contact Amy Goode at (814) 781-3437 or amy@communityedcenter.com.