Staten Island Technical High School Freshman Wins YEA! Competition

On Tuesday, May 30, 2023, the Staten Island Chamber of Commerce Foundation hosted the Young Entrepreneurs Academy (YEA!) Investor Panel competition at the Hilton Garden Inn Staten Island. The Investor Panel is a "Shark Tank" style competition, where high schoolers across Staten Island get the opportunity to showcase their businesses and compete for investor funding and a spot as a semifinalist at the YEA! National Saunders Competition.  

The event served as the culmination of the 2023 YEA! Cohort. YEA! is a groundbreaking program that guides high school students through the process of starting a real business, including business plan development, pitching to an investor panel, obtaining funding, launching the venture, managing media campaigns, and e-commerce and web development, among others.  

By the conclusion of the YEA! Program, students are expected to have developed fully formed and functioning businesses, which are often carried on by students after graduation. This year’s YEA! class comprised of 18 students, representing nearly every high school in the borough.   

Dr. Janet Leslie, CEO of Gift of Experience, served as the 2023 YEA! Instructor. “The students worked painstakingly on every detail of their business plan—from their initial conceptual models to finalizing their actual product prototypes,” said Dr. Leslie. “It gave me great joy to watch their final pitches in front of the Investor Panel. Congratulations to Noah Rozin, this year’s Staten Island Chamber of Commerce’s YEA awardee, and kudos to each and every student who competed.”  

This year’s Staten Island YEA! Investor Panel winner and National Saunders Competition semifinalist is Noah Rozin, a Grade 9 student at Staten Island Technical High School. Rozin’s business, “Ace of Ages,” is a historical and educational board game that aims to integrate fun into modern-day learning. Rozin received $2,200 to invest in his new business.   

Runner-ups Elle Barrera and Sophia Borthwick, Hair for Won, and Ben Wiseman, Entropy Knives, received $1,175 and $825, respectively.  

The 2023 YEA! cohort was made possible by Presenting Sponsor Con Edison, who championed this year’s YEA! program. The 2023 Investor Panel was sponsored by Amazon, Broadway Stages, Empire State Bank, Lions Pride Leadership Company, Mid Island Rotary, National Grid, Northfield Bank, Rotary Club of Staten Island, and Staten Island’s Small Business Development Center. YEA! also received support from Scholarship Partner Sponsors AVID Architecture, The Rab Wilkinson Foundation, and CI RegentAtlantic. YEA!’s 2023 Media Sponsor was Staten Island Community Media, who documented the class, accompanied the cohort on site visits, and developed video recaps. 

Edward Burke, Senior Advisor to Borough President Vito J. Fossella, served as the event’s emcee. “The Staten Island Chamber of Commerce is helping to inspire our next generation of dynamic business leaders through the Young Entrepreneurs Academy,” said Burke. “I regard this event as one of Staten Island's best showcases for career building among young people. The atmosphere was like a sporting event – nail-biting and exciting. The students involved this year displayed remarkable creativity and savviness.  I wouldn't be surprised to see several of them launching their business enterprises professionally and stepping up as community leaders.  Congratulations to Linda Baran and her team at the Staten Island Chamber and the Investor Panel judges for nurturing our next generation of business leaders and innovators.”    

“Of all of the Chamber’s initiatives, YEA! is among the closest to my heart,” said Linda Baran, President and CEO of the Staten Island Chamber of Commerce. “It is a thrill to see a budding entrepreneur enter the cohort with a seed of an idea and emerge with a fully-formed business. These students set the stage for the next generation of businesses and demonstrate a tremendous amount of creativity. I can’t wait to see what they do next.”  

Congratulations to all the 2023 YEA! Participants, and best of luck as they further develop their businesses!  

For more information on future YEA! cohorts, please visit https://www.sichamber.com/yea or contact YEA! Program Manager, Jillian Baldassarre, at jbaldassarre@sichamber.com.