The idea of creating a Baton Rouge-based academy focusing on cultivating entrepreneurship among youth—culminating with students registering their businesses with the Secretary of State’s office—is an idea former Starmount Life Insurance Debra Sternberg had been toying with for six years.
It started while watching her then-fourth grade son participate in a Shark Tank-type experience at school, featuring a panel including exiting LSU Innovation Park Executive Director Charlie D’Agostino, Business Report details in a recent feature.
After the panel, her son asked D’Agostino if he had a business card, saying he had a lot of ideas but didn’t want to share them with the whole room.
“Charlie [D’Agostino] and I said, ‘Why are we waiting for kids to go to college or even get out before teaching them the fundamentals of business?’” Sternberg recalls.
Her chance to act upon the idea came in January when she announced her retirement from her longtime role as president of the life insurance company. D’Agostino introduced her to the Young Entrepreneurs Academy concept, often shortened as YEA, in Rochester, New York.
When Sternberg, footed the $13,000 bill to establish a Baton Rouge affiliate of the national YEA, she did not know that as many as 25 Louisiana businesses could come out of the investment.
Read the full feature about the Young Entrepreneurs Academy’s first year. Send comments to editor@businessreport.com.
