Financial Education Week Youth Entrepreneurship Boot Camp Business Plan Competition
Category : News
The Mexican Consulate in San Diego concluded its Financial Education Week program on Saturday with a closing event at the San Diego County Office of Education building in National City. The weeklong program, geared toward the hispanic community and coordinated by the consulate in collaboration with the City of National City, City of Chula Vista, and various community-based organizations, featured informational fairs and presentations throughout the county on financial literacy topics. The program also included a 3-day Youth Entrepreneurship Boot Camp hosted at Alliant International University. Students from various high schools throughout the county received entrepreneurial training through a series of intensive business classes delivered by Alliant professors. The boot camp culminated in a business plan competition in which the students presented the business ideas they developed during the camp to a panel of judges for a chance to win scholarship money and an iPad. The panel of judges included Gabriel Reyes, YEP Coordinator; Valery Belloso, Business Development Officer with ACCION San Diego; Maria Kachadoorian, Finance Director – City of Chula Vista; Ernesto Arredondo, Regional President – Wells Fargo Bank; Luisa McCarthy, Director – La Vista Memorial Park; Zulema Maldonado, Realtor and Board Member – Chula Vista Chamber of Commerce; Miguel Angel Ma, Owner – The Steakhouse on Broadway; Andy Carey, Executive Director – US Mexico Border Philanthropy Partnership; Joise Calderon, CEO – JLC Consultant Services; Juan Carlos Lopez, Owner – Rincon del Mar Restaurants. Three winners were selected and announced at the program’s closing event. However, all the students that completed the program walked away winners when Mr. Arredondo offered them employment with the bank, which includes tuition assistance as part of their benefits package.
The San Diego CITD Youth Entrepreneurship Program (YEP) will be taking the winning students through the next phase of the implementation of their business plan. In this phase, the San Diego CITD will provide additional entrepreneurship training and mentoring geared toward helping these students fine tune their business plans and ultimately launch their businesses.