DreamUp
DreamUp was developed as an answer to the devastation and impact of COVID-19 on summer youth employment opportunities, particularly affecting African-American students ages 14-18. While economic downturn and social unrest continue to make headlines, several housing insecure and homeless students participated in the program as a target demographic facing these challenges in their everyday lives.
ArtUp led 20 Shelby County Schools and private school students in the development of their own creative business pitches via an accelerated 3-week virtual entrepreneurship bootcamp. Students left the program with skills in leadership and public speaking, and lifelong traits such as confidence, resilience and character-building. They also received compensation from the City of Memphis Youth Services division for working on their business project throughout the Incubator.
18 – year old Kynnidi Caffey, a 2019 graduate of Briarcrest Christian School, won a $500 prize for delivering a 60 second pitch about her custom T-shirt company “Fits Us!”.
She, along with other student entrepreneurs attended virtual courses and completed robust assignments on the entrepreneurial mindset, design thinking, and pitch deck creation led by undergraduates from the Harvard University Women in Business club at Harvard College in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
