Young Entrepreneurs Society

Maya Garg, Olivia Xu and Annie Wanrong Luo Year 8

Back Row: Ms Kate Soonius (2018), Sasha Wong, Year 10, Ms Sangeeta Venkatesan Front Row: Christy Xue, Celine Hu, Jessie Xie, Year 10

Back Row: Annie Wanrong Luo, Year 8, Olivia Xu, Year 8, Ella Liu, Year 8, Emma Du, Year 8, Mulan Xu, Year 9, Melanie Sun, Year 10, Lina Lin, Year 10, Celine Hu, Year 10 Front Row: Maya Garg, Year 8, Christy Xue, Year 10, Hanna Cheung, Year 10, Yuki Wang, Year 9, Isabella Nguyen, Year 8

YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS SOCIETY (YES)

The Young Entrepreneurs Society (YES) is a student-run club that aims to provide students with the opportunity to launch their own ideas as a business. YES 2021 was successfully carried out during the pandemic through the guidance of the Head of Extended Learning, Mrs Olsen, and YES Presidents Alice Guan, Year 12, and Hanna Cheung, Year 10. In YES, we develop our innovations with the assistance of a mentor and inspiration from guest speakers. Then, we create pitches and exhibit our final prototypes to teachers, parents and potential investors. At the beginning of in-person training, the YES leadership team invited Kim Pierce and Kath Davis of The Possibility Project to share a few words of wisdom on the success of entrepreneurship. “World. We have a problem. Fortunately, we also have seven billion+ solutions.”

– Kath Davis (The Possibility Project)

Having ‘change’ as the biggest goal in mind, students were challenged to develop prototypes that will act as reallife solutions to social and environmental issues such as climate change, unemployment, service ergonomics, ethical production and mental wellbeing. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, our 2021 Pitch Night looked quite different as we created our own websites to display our pitches. There was even public access through the YES home site. For the in-person YES event, the team decided to transform the conventional pitch presentation and speech into a gallery exposition for flexible interaction between the audience and student entrepreneurs. Along with entrepreneurial opportunities, YES also provides leadership roles. The 2021 YES team was split into four branches consisting of marketing, human resources, operations and finance. These students were given the responsibility to demonstrate and execute their leadership, communication and management skills. Through administrating YES, they communicated with College staff, contacted guests and promoted the program to the wider College community. Sasha Wong, Year 10