Ref. JPEC080707

The North Iowa Area Community College John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center conducted the Youth Entrepreneurial Academy on June 15-19.  Nineteen high school students representing nine school districts participated in this year’s camp.

The NIACC JPEC extended invitations to all North Iowa juniors and seniors via area high school guidance counselors and teachers earlier this year.  Applicants were asked to complete an application packet including recommendations by teachers, counselors and parents followed by an interview with JPEC staff.

Participants included:
Clear Lake – Anthony Biermann, Geoff Delperdang, Dan Mark, Vanessa Ruiz
Forest City – Scott Byers, Rachel Church, Amanda Destival, Tyler VonEhwegen
Mason City – Leah Escher, Tiara Mahon, Mandy Vrieze
Osage - Jordan Crosser and Monica Jahnel
Rockford – Angela Kaspar
SL-MT – Kyle DeBettignies
St. Ansgar – Kaitlyn Goplerud
Ventura – Tyler Weisenstein
West Hancock – Jonathan Aquilar and Derik Broshar

The objectives of the Youth Entrepreneurial Academy were to expose students to entrepreneurship, provide students with an opportunity to apply their skills and creativity, help students understand critical thinking skills and give students another career option of being a “job creator” instead of a “job taker.”
Randy Smit, NIACC Marketing/Management instructor; Brad and Angie Barber, owners of Cabin Coffee Company; and Tim Putnam, NIACC JPEC associate director served as instructors.  Dan Long and Heather Horner, Mason City High School instructors, served as counselors during the Academy. 

Following the daily classroom activities, the students traveled to several area businesses to learn first-hand knowledge from area entrepreneurs.  Participants visited Manly and Northwood on Monday evening and toured the Manly Terminal and the Worth Brewing Company.  They also heard presentations from Kim Miller, Worth County Development Authority, and Margaret Bishop, Bishop Energy Engineering.  On Tuesday, the participants visited TeamQuest Corporation, Ge-Jo’s by the Lake and enjoyed a special performance from the former Miss Iowa, Diana Reed, in Clear Lake. 

Funding for the 2008 academy was provided by the NIACC JPEC and the John K. and Luise V. Hanson Foundation. 

The John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center is located on the North Iowa Area Community College campus in Mason City, Iowa and provides college level courses and degree programs in entrepreneurship, as well as consulting services for business start-ups and existing industries in the North Iowa region.  The Center also provides FastTrac® training programs both for beginning companies and existing companies. Space is now available in the new North Iowa Business Incubator for start-up businesses.
For more information, please contact Tim Putnam at the John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center at 641-422-4192.

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