{"id":89288,"date":"2025-07-24T18:25:22","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T18:25:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/89288\/"},"modified":"2025-07-24T18:25:22","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T18:25:22","slug":"scranton-prep-students-schooled-on-biz-basics-scranton-times-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/89288\/","title":{"rendered":"Scranton Prep students schooled on biz basics \u2013 Scranton Times-Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"

SCRANTON \u2014 From equipping more people from diverse populations with the skills and resources to launch their own companies to providing books to schools in a poverty-stricken country and implementing a system to address the growing homelessness issue in big cities, Scranton Prep students pitched business plans to their advisers and peers Wednesday as part of the newly introduced Entrepreneurs for Good program.<\/p>\n

The two-week summer program \u2013 which concludes Friday \u2013 aims to prepare students to become successful entrepreneurs while maintaining the school\u2019s Jesuit values of building community, serving God by serving others, and valuing each person\u2019s uniqueness.<\/p>\n

Fifteen students selected to participate in the first session of the program receive instruction on the fundamentals of business planning, leadership, marketing, communication and ethics \u2013 all while remaining focused on service and social responsibility.<\/p>\n

Robert Sprung, a 1980 Scranton Prep graduate and a Harvard and Cambridge-educated entrepreneur, developed the program and brought it to Scranton Prep after implementing it at Phillips Academy Andover in Massachusetts for three years.<\/p>\n

Another Prep alumnus, Deborah Zajkowski, and Mike Barker, an employee of the Harvard-Westlake School in California \u2013 who are both well versed in entrepreneurship \u2013 have been assisting Sprung with the instruction.<\/p>\n

The sincerity of the students stood out to Sprung during the first eight days of the program.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey really do want to make a difference in the world and I think entrepreneurship, today, is a vehicle to do that,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen I was a student, we didn\u2019t talk about becoming an entrepreneur \u2013 it was more of an oddball thing to do \u2013 but today it\u2019s very mainstream.\u201d<\/p>\n

Their sense of ingenuity also impressed Sprung as the participants developed their ideas into concrete plans.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith 15 kids, not one of their ideas is about artificial intelligence or crypto, or something trendy like that,\u201d he said. \u201cOne of the first things we teach them about the essence of entrepreneurship is being a contrarian. In general, if you\u2019re an entrepreneur, if the herd is running one way you instinctually try to run the other way. I found it very refreshing that their ideas were very real, practical and relevant.\u201d<\/p>\n

During his presentation, Anthony De Los Santos \u2013 a senior from Dickson City \u2013 laid out a plan to help more Latin Americans own their own companies through his proposed firm \u2013 InnovaLatino.<\/p>\n

Seeing how hard his grandfather worked to establish Bucktown Diner in Dunmore inspired De Los Santos to focus his attention on increasing the number of Latin American business owners.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s been a successful Latin American entrepreneur for less than 10 years because he spent most of his life working under bigger corporations without knowing the freedom of being an entrepreneur,\u201d De Los Santos said. \u201cLike him, 38.2 million Latin Americans work in the United States, but only 10% own their own businesses. At my company, we plan to increase that percentage using a three-step cycle: we plan to build, elevate and launch successful Latin American entrepreneurs. We\u2019ll build the foundation through our entrepreneurial program; we will elevate the entrepreneurs knowledge of their business using our mentorship program and we\u2019ll launch those entrepreneurs into the real world using an investment opportunity network where entrepreneurs take their data and pitches, put it into our data network and investors pay a small finders fee to contact our talent. By doing this, we plan to create an economic snowball of small businesses and generational wealth for the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

De Los Santos found many aspects of the program enlightening.<\/p>\n

\u201cI learned a lot, especially about finance,\u201d he said. \u201cI love math and numbers, and they laid down the tracks for finance in a way I can understand, which really had an effect on me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anna Brown \u2013 a senior from Honesdale \u2013 who strives to pursue a career in international relations believes the lessons learned through the entrepreneurship program will serve her well in future endeavors.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this has really helped with communicating with people and being able to see things from different perspectives,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

For her business plan, Brown developed a company called Elimu \u2013 the Swahili word for education \u2013\u00a0after a trip to Kenya left an indelible mark on her two years ago.<\/p>\n

Specifically, a meeting with a girl named Faith provided the fuel for her passion project \u2013 bringing books to children throughout underserved sections of the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the shortcomings that stuck in my mind was that the school didn\u2019t have enough books to fill the shelves for its students,\u201d Brown said. \u201cThat broke my heart as I was raised on reading books all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brown noted the literacy rate where Faith goes to school is 40% \u2013 a number she to seeks to elevate through her proposal.<\/p>\n

\u201cAccess to books means a better standard of living and it means having confidence, knowledge, and connection to the world,\u201d she said. \u201cBy growing our funder base, expanding the number of donation locations and partnerships we\u2019ll be able to send books to different focus regions of Kenya. At Elimu, we believe words connect the world and we\u2019re working toward making books accessible for all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Austin Burke \u2013 a senior from Scranton \u2013 developed a plan to address the plight of homelessness in highly populated areas through a firm called Full Circle \u2013 an employee-owned company which would employ many former homeless individuals.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve been through it and they understand the problem,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Burke\u2019s research discovered New York City spent $4 billion on homelessness issues in 2024 and still saw in increase in the homeless population. Instead of relying on short-term fixes like homeless shelters and soup kitchens, he proposed a three-step approach to attack the issue at its root and also make a profit \u2013 identify, assist and employ.<\/p>\n

The first step entails reaching out to homeless shelters and soup kitchens to find out who is looking to work, Burke said. The second step helps them with whatever they need to work a full-time job, from a haircut and clean clothes to drug and alcohol counseling, and the third step involves forging relationships with companies like Amazon and UPS, which provide the people with jobs and pay Full Circle an agent fee \u2013 nearly half which is reinvested into the assist program, he added.<\/p>\n

Burke thought the entire concept of the program provides valuable insights for students.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just like the whole idea of it \u2026 being able to be an entrepreneur and your own boss, but also knowing you\u2019re doing good and helping people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Leah Okimoto, founder of Aaron\u2019s Presents, a Massachusetts-based nonprofit which mentors kids as young as 10 to design and execute social entrepreneurship projects, offered guidance to the Scranton Prep students during a video call Wednesday as they follow their passions in life.<\/p>\n

\u201cTry to really reflect and think about what gets you excited,\u201d she said. \u201cYou all have something very unique and you have a way of impacting this world that no one else can do.\u201d<\/p>\n