Asbury Park Students JET toward April Monmouth Expo
Middle Schoolers learn entrepreneurial skills after school
It’s a daunting task that was readily embraced by two dozen of Asbury Park’s most adventurous teens.
These Asbury Park middle school aged students signed on in December for Interfaith Neighbor’s 14-week Junior Entrepreneur Training [JET] program, meeting afterschool on Thursdays since February in the Springwood Center.
Under the direction of volunteer business mentors, students learn business administration, marketing concepts, communication skills and how to well within a team. They’ve formed companies and presented business plans to a panel of local professionals in order to obtain $200 seed money.
Now three groups are in the last weeks of product assembly, racing in time for distribution at the April 9th Made in Monmouth Expo. Their wares include decorative picture frames, emoji pillows embellished with buttons, and printed sweatshirts.
One group led by volunteer business mentors Robert Weiner and Sheila Etienne recently celebrated the success of a brainstorming session to bring the business they call “#Frames” into fruition.
“It’s like something you never heard of — learning the behind the scenes of business,” said 14-year-old Erykah Jones, an eighth grader at Hope Academy Charter School on Grand Avenue.
Patterned after a longstanding entrepreneur program held in Mercer County, city resident Frank Syphax worked with Interfaith Neighbors to bring the hands-on training program into fruition. The program is led by Charles Simmons.
The program launched in 2015, yielding the sale of printed T-shirts and chocolate-dipped treats at the annual Monmouth County Expo. The inaugural group of students not only made enough money to pay back their start-up loans but to also divide the profits and donate to charitable causes.
A number of those students returned this year, among them is 13-year-old Danielle Delgado who has aspirations of becoming a doctor.
“I made a lot of good friends and wanted to come see them again,” she said at the December program launch. “I learned what it felt like to be in business with a bunch of other people. It was really fun and I like the idea of learning more.”
Weiner and Etienne are joined by volunteer mentors Mychal Mills, Thomas J. Johnson, Jan Sparrow and Isaac Jones. Simmons and Syphax also help with the volunteer mentoring efforts.
This year the Made in Monmouth Expo will be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. April 9 at Monmouth University.
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