The Grand Junction Area Chamber of Commerce’s Young Entrepreneurs Academy Class of 2024 graduation took place last Tuesday, May 7th, at the Maverick Innovation Center. With that, our eleventh YEA! class has officially completed the program as CEOs of fully formed and functioning businesses.
Congratulations to these students and their new businesses!
Alison McCaw, Everything In Its Place
Cuzack Bové, CB3D
Rusty Junge, Rusty Metal
To commemorate their achievements, the young graduates heard from guest speakers Tom Benton, Colorado Mesa University and the Maverick Innovation Center, and Dave Scanga, Hoskin, Farina, & Kampf, PC, before receiving their official certificates and sharing about their program successes with their instructors, mentors, family and friends in attendance.
This marks a very exciting milestone for our students, the product of months of hard work and dedication, from beginning to envision their business ideas to officially being able to call themselves business owners. We have no doubt that this is only the beginning of their entrepreneurial journeys, and we congratulate them as the newest members of our business community and future leaders!
Thank you to each and every one of our community partners, business leaders, investors, instructors, volunteers and guest speakers who have helped to make this program a continuing success.
The Young Entrepreneurs Academy focuses on driving innovation, creating opportunities for youth to network, view the world in new ways, take risks and create meaningful enterprises. This immersive program offers a diverse curriculum of activities, with hands-on, real world experiences such as field trips, networking with prominent business leaders, mentorships and opportunities to pitch their ideas to local investors. Since bringing the program to Grand Junction, the Grand Junction Area Chamber of Commerce has graduated over 80 YEA! students over the last decade and counting, many of whom are now contributing members of our business community.
Applications are currently open for the YEA! Class of 2025!
For more information about the program, opportunities to get involved and apply, contact the Chamber at info@gjchamber.org or (970) 242-3214 or click here.