VYEF added the Create-A-Space field trip, as well as Effective Leadership Academy and Y-Center at Ashland University to the list of offerings for the 2024-2025 school year.

20 students from a local school were chosen to partake in a 5-day workshop aimed at teaching high school students about entrepreneurship, these workshops took place between September 2024 and February 2025. Effective Leadership Academy facilitated the program which highlights the importance of keeping an open mind, thinking outside the box, developing and adhering to a personal code of ethics, and embracing change. Their goal is to provide a transformational experience to inspire youth to become the pilot of their own lives.

John Carroll University hosted Thinkfest on October 8 & 9 with 313 students attending from 15 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.

The VYEF Skill Building Workshop Day was held on November 15 at Cleveland State University. The event provided networking opportunities and lessons in design, leadership, business modeling, and business pitching to 90 students from seven schools. Skill-building sessions were conducted by:

Green Light Improv: Students stepped into a world where new ideas were celebrated, new experiences were embraced, and adaptability was second nature. The group valued everyone’s input, adapted quickly to new information, and sought out change.

Effective Leadership Academy (ELA): Students worked together to navigate through an experiential learning activity that represented the need for ‘smart failure,’ support from others, the ability to pivot, and resilience as entrepreneurs.

designExplorr: Students used empathy mapping, brainstorming, artistic prototyping, and critical thinking to create a solution in this hands-on social-impact design challenge.

On December 6, 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 from 12 schools 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.

This year’s thinkBIG! Challenge included entries from 120 teams from 19 schools across Northeast Ohio. Out of the 120 teams that submitted executive summaries to the competition, 20 teams received honorable mention awards. Six 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 4, 2025.

City Club of Cleveland hosted 81 students from six schools at the Design Challenge Hackathon held on January 29 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.

Facilitated and hosted by Y-Center Ashland University, the UN Innovation Challenge was introduced by VYEF in Spring 2025. 16 students attended the workshop dedicated to learning more about international business and entrepreneurship. Groups created unique international businesses and presented them to their peers. Students earned an official United Nations LinkedIn certification at the end of the program.

The thinkBIG! Summit was held on March 4, at the Tinkham Veale University Center at Case Western Reserve University. 327 students from 16 schools attended. 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 2025 thinkBIG! Summit started off with keynote speaker Johnny Earle, founder and CEO of the t-shirt brand Johnny Cupcakes! Johnny also served as a thinkBIG! Summit competition judge. The judging panel also included Amy Mucha, founder of Daisy Pops and Aisha Childers, Chief Executive Office of Create-A-Space and owner of Bite Creole Kitchen.

On April 25, 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.

246 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. A tour of the podcast studio was added to this field trip in 2024.

Create-A-Space was introduced in Fall 2024 as a choose your own adventure-style field trip with hands-on opportunities for students to learn from experienced entrepreneurs and creative area professionals. The field trip offered students workshops about producing music, creating a podcast, and exposure to culinary experiences. Students also received a professional headshot.

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.

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.

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 2025-2026 school year.

24 microgrants were awarded to students at 13 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.