excelerate
A café based academy that affirms work ethic, fosters leadership and grows young entrepreneurs. Excelerate is a one word program title that captures who these amazing children are – an image of them running their restaurants – a word that captures that energy and that passion.
The children in grades K-8 run their own restaurant business (i.e. Taco Bell Jr, Horizon Shine, Sweet Treats International Café…etc.) INSIDE our free Summer Lunch Camps and our 3-Generation Family ESL program.
In the summer, we train local entrepreneurs to come four times during camp (once a week for four weeks) to teach the children business lessons (marketing, HR, etc.) to help them ‘run their business.’ We modified Junior Achievement materials (with permission) to make them appropriate for a camp setting.
We start challenging middle schoolers to create a new business.
Teen intern volunteers are ‘helpers’ at these restaurants, helping the children think through what they need to do (and learning alongside them).
