Needham Entrepreneurial Leadership Program
It was my absolute privilege and pleasure to have been part of Needham ELP which was designed to stimulate the entrepreneurial mindsets of high school students within the Needham area. However, the experience went deeper than that and we were able to cultivate effective relationships with the students. We got to know and interact with them on a greater and personal level and learned so much from them as a result. We would occasionally help them with their homework assignments, grant them advice about college, teach them about financial literacy, and assist them with strategies for the SAT/ACT. It was satisfying to watch them grow and mature throughout the process and know you had a monumental impact in their development. We essentially created a tight knit community between ourselves and the students which grew and sparked formidable ideas. Having a focus on social and economic impact we brainstormed with the students on how to efficiently start a small business project for the purpose of reinvesting the profits back into the community. They came up with the idea and logistics of designing their own t-shirt brand and selling them to their target market. They even made a PowerPoint presentation to present to the stakeholders at Babson in order to request for funding and gain other valuable resources. Watching them go from the idea stage to the action and performance stage was simply fascinating and it re-affirms the notion that our future is in good hands with these remarkable students.
-Sienzhi Kouemo, Sophomore