Our Program
Our Program
YEP! is a free entrepreneurship education program for high school students from under-resourced schools, hosted at universities globally.
YEP! strives to expose high school students to university campuses, real-world opportunities, and lifelong mentorship.
Our mission is to:
Develop the next generation of entrepreneurs.
Grow our participants confidence.
Expose our students to university campuses and professional opportunities.
Our mission is to:
Develop the next generation of entrepreneurs.
Grow our participants confidence.
Expose our students to university campuses and professional opportunities.
Our History
THE START OF AN ERA
In 2019, three Brown University students: Audrey Shapiro, Lucia Winton, and Leah Lam founded YEP! to address strained town-gown relations and the lack of entrepreneurial opportunities for high-schoolers.
EXPANSION
After working with over high school students in Providence, YEP! launched its first external chapter at Yale. In 2023, YEP! expanded to the West Coast and internationally, opening chapters at UC Berkeley, UCLA, and the University of New South Wales.
DEVELOPMENTS
Over the past three years, YEP! has worked with over 1,000 students from cities throughout the globe. Through partnering with New Hytes, a New Haven chapter of the USTA Foundation, we also were able to expand our programming to middle school students.
WHAT’S NEXT?
The YEP! timeline continues to unfold, promising fresh opportunities and unique experiences for aspiring entrepreneurs. Get ready for the next chapter with us!
Inside the Incubator
Our Welcome Day kicks off a transformative journey for our entrepreneurs, where they’ll meet fellow students, get to know the team, and take their first steps into the fundamentals of entrepreneurship.
Our incubator program typically ranges from 5-7 weeks. When the program is in session, students will meet weekly for two hour sessions where they will learn key entrepreneurial skills and develop their ventures.
Pitch Night is the culmination of months of hard work and dedication, as YEP! students bring their entrepreneurial visions to life. They will pitch their ventures to an audience of friends and family and receive feedback from guest judges, including local entrepreneurs and university professors.
Our Curriculum
Each session opens with an hour focused on a new entrepreneurial skill. Students learn how to spot opportunities, test ideas through research, design business models, manage costs, and communicate their vision. These skills build a foundation for understanding how an idea becomes a venture.
At YEP!, we believe entrepreneurship is best learned by doing. In the second hour of the program, students apply their skills to developing their own ventures, refining their ideas throughout the program before pitching them at Pitch Night.
At YEP!, participant collaboration is just the beginning. The presence of passionate guest speakers who generously share invaluable insights from their experiences as seasoned entrepreneurs further enrich the education YEP! students receive.
