NEW YORK (December 29, 2006) – Globalization, corporate mergers, ethics: These may dominate today’s business headlines, but the real news is minority youth turning their ideas into profitable business ventures.
They’re getting help from the Wall Street Project, which holds its 10th Annual Wall Street Economic Summit and Conference Jan. 7-10, 2007, at the Sheraton New York Hotel & Towers. Founded by Rev. Jesse L. Jackson Sr., founder and President of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, the Wall Street Project exists to spur global investment in minority businesses, train minority entrepreneurs, and grow the next generation of minority business developers.
This year, when about 150 high school students from New York City’s public schools attend the conference to learn about the stock market, they’ll also learn what it takes to start their own businesses. Facilitators from the Young Entrepreneurs Camp will teach students how to develop feasible business concepts, assess their products and marketability, design a business plan, and apply for venture capital and marketing. They’ll also learn how to develop ideas using technology and explore how to use their business acumen to benefit their communities.
“The Wall Street Project exists to promote African Americans success in business, and there’s no better way to do that than by bringing in our bright young people,” Rev. Jackson said. “As they excel, they become role models for their peers and every person of color.”
“Financial literacy and economic development are a key component of the Civil Rights Movement,” said Andrew Carr, director of the Wall Street Project. “This is an important part of the goal of leveling the playing field.”
Among the hundreds of business professionals expected at the Wall Street Project conference is 12-year-old Jamal Browder, owner of a family-travel agency. Browder was encouraged to start his own business two years ago after meeting other young entrepreneurs through the Washington, D.C.-based International Business Kids Foundation during the Wall Street Project’s Conference.
“The Wall Street Project has given my students a chance to see minorities who are making a difference on Wall Street,” said Endura Govan, director of the Foundation leading the training. “My kids know that Rev. Jackson’s actions didn’t stop with the death of Dr. King. He’s still opening doors.”
In 1990, as a kindergarten pupil, Govan’s son Alexander began a button-making business. He soon organized other students and developed the business with them.
Sadly, Alexander died of cancer several years later. But Govan vowed keep alive his collaboration with other young people through the Foundation. “It’s definitely an extension of his vision,” she said. “It’s reflecting on Alexander being so young and coming to me and saying, ‘Mommy, can you help me start a business?’”
Through workshops and after-school programs, the Foundation aims to train more than 10,000 youngsters by 2010 in order to create their own youth-led companies.
Carr said he believes the training produces results. “Starting at a younger age increases the opportunity for students’ success,” he said. “A lot of folks in the community who’ve started businesses, are still looking for basic tools that can be taught at younger age.”
The Wall Street Project, founded in 1997 on the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., uses the Operation Breadbasket model of research, education, negotiation and reconciliation to promote inclusion, opportunity and economic growth by encouraging public and private industries to improve hiring and promotion practices; name more minorities to corporate boards; allocate more business to minority companies; and increase the amount of business minority firms conduct with each other.
The Rainbow PUSH Coalition is a progressive organization protecting, defending and expanding civil rights to improve economic and educational opportunity. To learn more about the conference, please call (212)-425-7874. To interview Rev. Jackson or Andrew Carr, please contact the Rainbow PUSH Coalition’s media office, (773)-256-2714.
