A word from a YE Teacher

Being a transition teacher was one of the most frightening things I have ever had to do. Transition teaching means I was in the business world with no teaching degree and I decided to try out teaching while I took classes to get my teacher certification. When I interviewed for my job they said that I would be taking over the YEK class because they thought I would be a good fit, so I said no problem. As I got closer to the start date I realized that I had almost no idea of what I was doing and no idea what teaching YEK required at the time. 

Teaching YEK over the last 4 years has forced me to be more organized and ready for each day. I have to have the energy every day to keep up with the students because they don’t take a day off. It is a fantastic class because I can teach the kids things that happen around them every day and affect them. Things that they think are insignificant because they are happening around the world affect the places they shop and the things they do. It is fun because the class evolves every year as the business world grows and changes the class grows with it. Having the experiences of leaving the classroom and seeing how entrepreneurs in the real world operate is fantastic and also having business professionals in the area come in and speak really makes an impact on the kids in the class room. This class teaches everything that it takes to make it outside the walls of high school, the lessons that I get to teach is the knowledge that these students will remember 10 years from now. I feel privileged to teach such fun and interesting class.

-Jim Vanek

The Evolution of Modernity

As an American born in the early eighties I am lucky enough to have been born into a culture that clings onto freedom.  This freedom manifests itself in speech, media, sports, and also the business world.  Most of the largest and most successful businesses in this day and age are businesses that were just getting started during my formative years, so in a way it is almost as if I grew up with them.  While I was watching “Saved by the Bell” and wishing I could order pizza in class from my brick cell phone like Zach Morris, or one day see laser guns like they used in “G.I. Joe”, businesses that would shape the culture of my adulthood were being born. 

I am reading “The Culture Code” written by Clotaire Rapaille.  In this book he speaks a lot about what people want, versus what they say they want.  He refers to a particular instance to prove his point.  Around the time that Chrysler was deciding if the world was ready for the new Jeep, Clotaire was brought in to assess the public’s interest, and how to move forward with production and reformation of the Jeep that everyone associates with the military.  He mentions people talking about gas mileage and safety as important, which are two things NO ONE thinks of when envisioning a Jeep.  When he changed the way he started to ask the focus groups to think of their first memories of Jeep, and what they think of when they do envision a Jeep the responses were very different.  He started to see just how this vehicle defined an era of freedom, hope and change.  The Jeep is now one the best selling American cars ever made.   

This is what fascinates me about people.  People very rarely say what they really, really want, and often they are perhaps unaware of what that is.  Instead, when asked what do you like, or what do you want, they respond with what the culture tells them to want or like.  People haven’t changed, but the business world has had to adapt for that very reason.  Don’t get me wrong, I am just as guilty of letting businesses dictate the culture as anyone else.  I like many other people my age have fallen into the “Apple Hole”.  I have 3 Ipods, a Macbook, and Ipad and I am a self proclaimed Mac fanatic.  When asked why, my answers are essentially the ones that those clever “I’m a Mac, and I’m a PC” commercials told me.  I have become the customer that these businesses drool over, and chances are no matter how much you resist you will become one too.  Apple does a fantastic job of making slight improvements (just enough to make it new) and continuing to dictate and change what we think we need or want.         

The business world has become so dependent on this type of environment that now they often spend much more on advertising and marketing than they do on product research.  All too often the rapid evolution of the “now” is causing small businesses to succeed based on the modernity of a certain product or service, but then once that product evolves into something different, either the business doesn’t realize it at all, or they realize it too late.   

How can the small business world keep up with the culture dictating giants like Google or Apple?  What makes a business able to survive in a business world where the “now” becomes the “yesterday” so fast?  

“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”

-Henry Ford

-Grant Mankin

A Word from a teacher

Wow! Y.E.K. experiences bring so many things to mind.    First, Y.E.K. has provided some of the most relevant, valuable training I have experienced in my 23 years of teaching.  Training both in a variety of forms such as Koch Industries training sessions, summer teacher training, access to community events, a variety of teacher sharing platforms (which we are in the process of expanding and improving), and collaboration between educators, Y.E.K. staff, universities, community and business leaders.  All of these things make the Y.E.K. teacher experience more valuable!  Another huge part of the Y.E.K. experience that impacts my experience as a teacher, is the financial support our classrooms receive.  If there are curriculum, activities, or anything out there that can help us impact kids, Y.E.K. makes sure we are adequately funded in order to bring these things into the classroom.  In addition, this enables us to “practice what we preach”, that incentives work.  Through this financial support teachers are able to find ways to incentivize students, thus impacting the classroom.  Although the areas I mentioned above are HUGE, they are not the most memorable part of the Y.E.K. teacher experience for me.  

The most memorable experience is being able to work with students in the area of entrepreneurship or dream building.  The empowerment many students feel as they begin to look at themselves as creating value not just taking a paycheck is rewarding.  Although we as teachers are sometimes frustrated that this empowerment doesn’t happen easily or overnight for all students, that is at the same time what is so rewarding.  We only get to have these students in our program for 9 months, if it was that easy to change lives and get students to be entrepreneurial thinkers overnight, the experience would not present such a rewarding challenge.  

In my 20+ years of involvement in the Y.E.K. program, seeing students at North High School (and other schools) continue to grow after experiencing the program, as they “battle” as “owners” to create value for themselves, for their families, educationally, and professionally.  As Y.E.K. teachers, staff, funders, and supporters, the experience is not only rewarding, but vital to our community's future.  Although students may enter the entrepreneurial thinking path at the beginning, middle, end, somewhere in-between, or for many not even on the path, the Y.E.K. experience gets them on the path, and moves them forward at an accelerated rate.  AND THAT IS A CHALLENGING, FRUSTRATING, and (Oh, YES!) REWARDING EXPERIENCE!  Why I love Y.E.K. so much!  

-Matt Silverthorne