Young Entrepreneur Institute hosts 2nd NWA conference

More than 100 educators from Northwest Arkansas and across the state gathered recently to learn about teaching entrepreneurship and its impact on youth. They came for Enspire NWA 2024, hosted by Cleveland-based Young Entrepreneur Institute at University School.

This is the second year for the conference, which targets area K-12 educators and focuses on bringing the entrepreneur mindset to schools. The event included multiple speakers and workshops about entrepreneurship.

Last year, the Walton Family Foundation provided more than $1.21 million to the Young Entrepreneur Institute to expand into Northwest Arkansas. The grant supported a two-year pilot of the Young Entrepreneur Institute’s Northwest Arkansas initiative.

Through its partnership with the online platform YIPPEE Exchange, the Young Entrepreneur Institute allows K-12 public and charter school educators in Northwest Arkansas to receive grants to access curricula, materials, and experiences from area and nationwide providers. The Walton Family Foundation sponsors the grants for educators in Benton and Washington counties.

YIPPEE offers qualified educators resources, such as classroom workshops by Gentry-based Hens at Home and Young Entrepreneur Institute’s supplies and advice on real-world selling experience. YIPPEE — or youth, ideas, products, points, entrepreneurship, and education — was developed by Hudson, Ohio-based Burton D. Morgan Foundation and launched in 2022 in partnership with Young Entrepreneur Institute as an online marketplace for entrepreneurship education grants.

Yee-Lin Lai is a senior program officer for the Home Region Program at the Walton Family Foundation, supporting entrepreneurial development. Lai said the foundation has a focus to build a strong entrepreneurial ecosystem that includes youth entrepreneurship.

“An entrepreneurial mindset is correlated with improved communication skills, improved collaboration skills … improved critical-thinking skills, financial literacy and problem-solving,” Lai said.

She said YIPPEE allows youth entrepreneurship organizations to sell their products and services, and educators can choose what works best for them.

“I think that the teachers and the educators are the ones that know their students best and what works best in teaching entrepreneurship,” Lai said.

Jeff Amerine, founder of Startup Junkie, was the conference emcee.

“If you can empower and impart that mindset that entrepreneurship is this idea of seeing a problem and solving a problem, it doesn’t really matter whether they start their own businesses or whether they take that mindset into a large nonprofit, large organization, into whatever they do,” he said. “It’s the whole idea of being dissatisfied with the status quo and doing something about it.”

Amerine also noted the importance of the scientific method and the ability to test an idea to ensure its validity.

“That’s kind of fundamental to be a good entrepreneur, to being a consultant to your own idea, to be emboldened to what you learn from the world through good observation and through testing your assumptions,” he said. “The role teachers play in that, the rigor you bring to that, the understanding you have of good process and of repetition is really key to creating the next generation of successful entrepreneurs.”

KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Brian Weisfeld, entrepreneur and author of youth entrepreneurship books including “The Startup Squad” and “You’re The Boss,” was the keynote speaker at the conference. He was part of a group that purchased IMAX Corp. in the 1990s and helped to grow it into the brand it is today. He was also the chief operating officer for Coupons.com and helped it grow from a startup to looking to go public.

Weisfeld spoke about his struggles to become a published author and how receiving a publishing deal took him three years. He said he’s trying to create a mindset to see opportunities instead of problems and learn that failure is OK.

“We need to destigmatize failure for our kids. Failure is a step on the road to success,” Weisfeld said. “Everybody fails. It’s what you do after you fail that matters.”

He said entrepreneurship makes children better students and helps to prepare them for the future. It trains them to think for the unknown, be comfortable with risk and failure, have a growth mindset and problem-solve, and have resilience and grit. He said entrepreneurship helps youth even if they don’t become entrepreneurs.

“Entrepreneurship education is not about kids growing up to be entrepreneurs,” he said. “Kids that learn how to think like entrepreneurs are going to be better doctors, lawyers, teachers, moms, dads and better students as well.”

Weisfeld said he offers products on the YIPPEE platform, including free resources. He also has a nonprofit that teaches entrepreneurship to children in underserved communities.

YOUNG ENTREPRENEUR
Media personality Noah Washington is the host of “The Ridin’ Around Show” and a University of Arkansas student majoring in storytelling journalism. The Northwest Arkansas native and son of former NFL player Chuck Noah started his media company at 18 after graduating high school.

Over the past year, he’s spoken to over 1,000 area students about his entrepreneurial journey as a YouTuber and content creator. Educators can book him via the YIPPEE platform.

Washington’s YouTube show includes Washington riding around with college athletes and other guests while they drive luxury and high-performance vehicles. Washington interviewed guests such as Arkansas Razorbacks quarterback Tylen Green while driving a 707-horsepower Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk. One of his most-viewed episodes is a day in the life of Fayetteville firefighters.

Washington said he didn’t know he’d be doing this when he graduated high school. He noted the importance of finding someone with whom to discuss a business idea.

Washington said he invested about $20,000 to start his show and had a part-time job. He’s working to start a music career as a touring musician and recently completed an in-home studio. He plans to continue being a sports-related media personality.

YIPPEE SIGN UP
Conference attendees received guidance to set up an online YIPPEE account at yippee.exchange. Attendees also received points to gain access to the platform’s products.
Ilene Frankel, executive director of the Young Entrepreneur Institute, said educators use points to purchase products and services on the YIPPEE platform. Each point is worth $1.

“How the platform works is you log in and earn points,” she said. “Then you can shop. Then, once you shop, you get matched with a funder, and you don’t even have to worry about this. The platform does it. It all goes through and you are able to have your order fulfilled.”

Autumn Doss, an English teacher at Don Tyson School of Innovation, said YIPPEE was explained to her “kind of like grant writing without any of the paperwork … The Walton family is funding it for all of us in Northwest Arkansas … We’re really super fortunate.”

The platform has 74 stores offering multiple items focused on youth entrepreneurship and building entrepreneurial skills. Frankel likened it to shopping on Amazon. The platform’s 213 products are the resources available to educators and are broken up into categories, such as guest speakers and author visits. Games and kits and field trips are some others.

Frankel said the platform has had over 320,000 student impressions, 3,490 registered educators and nearly 6,000 orders.

“Somebody is going to top that today,” she said. “These are live statistics.”

Doss and Frankel also discussed ways educators can receive additional points, such as via referrals and attending conferences and virtual meetings.

“When you get your products, you can review them. That gives you more points,” Doss said. “I’ve never run out of points … I’m sure it is possible. But it’s a very generous environment. It’s very nice.”