2023-2024 Year in Review » Veale Entrepreneurs

2023-2024 YEAR IN REVIEW

VYEF programs are free to educators and high school students, empowering them with new entrepreneurial business skills.

New Programs

August 2023
Veale Youth Entrepreneurship Forum added Youth Bee Works Hive Sponsorship, Akron Suarez Marketing Lab, and DesignIS: Change to the list of programs, field trips and other opportunities for the 2023-2024 school year.

Thinkfest

October 2023
John Carroll University hosted Thinkfest on October 4 & 5 with 198 students attending from 16 Northeast Ohio schools. This event is facilitated by Dr. Jeffrey Stamp, the creator of Baked! Lays Potato Chips, the Olive Garden breadstick, as well as other well-known brands. Dr. Stamp is also the chief storyteller at Bold Thinking, LLC. Thinkfest workshops are designed to inspire high school students to develop an entrepreneurial mindset allowing them to recognize, develop, and pitch business ideas through interactive ideation.

DesignIS: Change

November 2023
DesignIS: Change was held November 9 at Baldwin Wallace University. It was an interactive experience that explored the power of design and allowed students to think deeply about solving a social impact problem. Attendees learned the six-step design thinking process, empathy mapping, and expanded their imagination through creative exploration. During the workshop, students received a design challenge, reflected on a user’s needs, developed a physical prototype, and presented their design solutions.

Stock Market Challenge

December 2023
On December 8, Junior Achievement of Greater Cleveland hosted the Fall Stock Market Challenge at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. The high energy event is designed to simulate the excitement of a real-life trading floor where students build solid financial foundations and gain knowledge they can use in the future.

The event hosted 250 students who worked in teams of four or five to buy and sell shares in fictional companies. The teams had $1,000,000 of “mock stock” to use throughout a 60-day trading period with new days starting every 60 seconds.

Before the challenge, students learned investing, saving, and team-building skills by completing Junior Achievement’s five in-class lessons.

thinkBIG! Challenge

January - March 2024
This year’s thinkBIG! Challenge included entries from 130 students on 52 teams from 10 schools across Northeast Ohio. Out of the 52 teams that submitted executive summaries to the competition, 21 semifinalist teams moved on to round 2 with executive coaching sessions to refine their pitches and business plans. Semifinalists submitted presentations competing for a chance to advance to the final round at the thinkBIG! Summit held on March 7, 2023.

VYEF Skill Building Workshop Day

January 2024
The VYEF Skill Building Workshop Day was held on January 24 at Cleveland State University. The event provided networking opportunities and lessons in design, leadership, business modeling, and business pitching to 65 students from 4 schools. Skill-building sessions were conducted by:

Green Light Improv: Step into a world where new ideas are celebrated, new experiences are embraced, and adaptability is second nature. Imagine a group that values everyone’s input, adapts quickly to new information, and seeks out change.

Holmes Mouthwatering Applesauce: In 2008, At the age of 15, Shaker Heights native Ethan Holmes launched “Holmes Mouthwatering” with his grandfather’s applesauce recipe and ambitious dreams of entrepreneurial success.

Mas LaRae: Alysha L. Ellis, MBA is a serial entrepreneur, ecosystem builder, author, and creator. In 2020, she developed Mas LaRae, a multimedia platform aiming to share, connect and inspire through storytelling, uplifting underrepresented voices, and intentional relationship building. Since then she has helped share over 200 stories.

BRITE with Lucas King: As the Startup Experience Specialist at BRITE, Lucas is responsible for ensuring early-stage energy technology companies are prepared to move forward with creating long-term sustainable businesses.

Hackathon

February 2024
MAGNET Cleveland hosted 62 students at the Design Challenge Hackathon held on February 8 in partnership with GiveBackHack. The Design Challenge Hack allowed students to learn a series of skills which encouraged them to develop sustainable resolutions to pressing social issues. Students worked in teams to create solutions addressing health, education, the environment, poverty, and social inequity. They refined their ideas through user validation, developing business model canvases and prototyping. The day concluded with all teams participating in a final pitch competition.

thinkBIG! Summit

March 2024
The thinkBIG! Summit was held on March 5, at the Tinkham Veale University Center at Case Western Reserve University. The event is the culmination of the thinkBIG! Challenge, where 6 finalist teams compete in two tracks (Innovation & Small Business) for a total of $9,000 in prizes. The event kicked off with a fireside chat featuring Swish Goswami. He has started six high-impact ventures across four industries and is currently the CEO and co-founder of Surf, a tech company providing brands with a better way to engage and understand consumers while compensating them for their data. His company has worked with some of the biggest brands, including Netflix, Sony Music, L’Oreal, Electronic Arts, Hewlett Packard, Amazon Prime Gaming, and more.

The fireside chat was moderated by Alysha L. Ellis, MBA. She is the CEO and founder of Mas LaRae, a multimedia platform aiming to share, connect and inspire through storytelling, uplifting underrepresented voices, and intentional relationship building.

Attendees participated in a mini-maker hackathon led by Upcycle Parts Shop! Each table of students worked in teams to craft physical representations of innovative ideas made from recycled materials and create a 60-second pitch to describe their ideas. Finalist teams were chosen to present their ideas to audience members and a panel of judges for a chance to win prizes.

Ariana Smith, Educational Engagement Manager at The City Club of Cleveland served as the emcee of thinkBIG! Summit.

Local entrepreneurs on the panel included:

Swish Goswami

Alisha Ellis

Matthew Stalder, Partner and Mentor at Youth Bee Works

The event concluded with the final six thinkBIG! Challenge teams pitching their ideas to three judges – Goswami, Ellis, and Stalder.

Innovation Track

First Place: Wild Wreck – Olmsted Falls High School

Elisabeth Flanagan, Eleeana Gates & Samantha Hoffman

Second Place: Good Chick – Laurel School

Camille Jackson, Serene Hameed, Kayla Pierce & Amelia GlasierThird Place: The Eco-kit – Chagrin Falls High School
William Asplin

Small Business Track

First Place: Flashback – GlenOak High School

Katie Galvin, Braeden Keyes, Morgan Stoker & Becca Klotz

Second Place: Spark Motion – Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy

 Benjamin Meybaum, Abigail Hayes
& Carson Weaver

Third Place: Clicker Cleats – Solon High School

Evan Adler & William Webb

Stock Market Challenge

April 2024
On April 24, Junior Achievement of Greater Cleveland hosted the Spring Stock Market Challenge at the Tri-C Corporate College East. The high energy event is designed to simulate the excitement of a real-life trading floor where students build solid financial foundations and gain knowledge they can use in the future.

The event hosted 250 students who worked in teams of four or five to buy and sell shares in fictional companies. The teams had $1,000,000 of “mock stock” to use throughout a 60-day trading period with new days starting every 60 seconds.

Before the challenge, students learned investing, saving, and team-building skills by completing Junior Achievement’s five in-class lessons.

Akron Suarez Marketing Lab

August-May 2023-2024
110 students visited the Akron Suarez Applied Marketing Research Lab  located at the University of Akron. Students and faculty developed comprehensive market intelligence reports. This was an Experiential Research Laboratory where students and businesses used techniques such as facial coding software to test the effectiveness of various types of advertising.
3D printer

thinkbox

August-May 2023-2024
154 students attended Sears think[box], located on Case Western Reserve University’s Campus, for a one-day workshop. think[box] is a 50,000 square-foot innovation center and makerspace. Students toured the center and participated in a workshop that exposed them to a variety of equipment as they work through a design process.

Upcycle: Enterprise

August-May 2023-2024
67 students visited Upcycle Parts Shop. Attendees explored social entrepreneurship through creative lessons, hands-on prototyping and had an opportunity to pitch ideas. The field trip allowed students to explore social entrepreneurship through creative lessons, hands-on prototyping and an opportunity to pitch ideas.

Youth Bee Works Hive Sponsorship

August-May 2023-2024
Five schools participated in Youth Bee Works Hive Sponsorship. Hive sponsorships gave students a unique opportunity to witness a fully functional economic force and create a revenue stream from the production of honey. Students utilized their entrepreneurial skills to market and sell the honey that was produced from their own beehive. This program is currently on a waitlist for the 2024-2025 school year.

NEO High School Microgrant

August-May 2023-2024
17 microgrants were awarded to students at 12 high schools located in Northeast Ohio. Students with an idea for a product or service, or who had a side hustle or business and were looking to scale, could apply for a microgrant to start or expand on their businesses.