LANCASTER –Student entrepreneurs, ages 12 to 14, will take to the stage this evening to present their business plans before a panel of local leaders of industry and a public audience.
The Young Entrepreneurs Academy Investor Panel event is free and open to the community. It will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday, March 19, at the Lancaster Performing Arts Center, located at 750 W Lancaster Blvd.
The 21 middle and high school students will be representing 11 businesses and social movements. Presenters will have six minutes to pitch their business plans to prominent local members of the business community in hopes of obtaining funding to launch enterprises.
The Investor Panel will be comprised of prominent local business people, including:
* Tim Fuller, Co-owner, Hunter Dodge, Jeep, Fiat
* Hernando Marroquin, Owner and Operator, eleven McDonald’s
* Robin Lawhon, Wealth Management Advisor, Merrill Lynch
* Cathy Hart, President, Lancaster West Rotary
* Bernard Longjohn, Executive Director, Choices in Learning National Foundation
* Sergio Lomeli, Asst. Vice President and Banking Center Manager, Bank of America
* Patrisha Sprague, Region Manager Local Public Affairs, Southern California Edison
* Steve Creamer, Executive Chairman, sPower, Sustainable Power Group
* Wendy Williams, Director of Communications, Antelope Valley Transit Authority
* Tom Davies, Chief Executive Officer, Phoenix Textile Restoration
* Bryan Whitcomb, General Manager, Solar Star Project, BHE Renewables
Based on the appeal and merit of the students’ plans and presentations, investors will determine the amount of funds to allocate to each business or social movement.
The participating investors will also select the one business group that will advance to the Young Entrepreneurs Academy Saunders Scholars National College Scholarship competition, where they will compete for hundreds of thousands of dollars in college scholarships, a fast-track application pass to apply to be on ABC’s Shark Tank, and an all-expenses paid trip to attend America’s Small Business Summit in Washington, DC, courtesy of the United States Chamber of Commerce.
The emcee for the evening will be Lancaster City Manager Mark Bozigian.
For more information on this event, call Sandy Smith at 661-948-4518 or 661-400-0342.
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