eVenture 2009 proved to be the most successful summer program yet for Charter Partners Institute. Eleven students came together for an exciting, fun, and intense week at the end of June. They took responsibility to collaboratively identify a problem or opportunity for which they could find a better way, and then develop the idea into a viable innovation. Participants are shown below:

No boring lessons here! The group ended up forming six teams, and each developed an original idea that held special meaning and passion for them. More than a dozen successful business leaders dropped in throughout the week to provide guidance and provide feedback, but each team took full responsibility for their innovation. This year we also had three previous program graduates who provided much of the leadership all week (Laurie Wagner [Lead], Beth Bracey, and Steve Rosen), as well as two others who assisted for a briefer period. By the end of the week, six innovative businesses were developed:

Each team presented to a panel of very successful business and financial leaders on Friday. The panel was overwhelmed by the quality of the ideas and the insights each team showed to carry out their innovation. This panel ended up praising all six innovations as providing an excellent foundation for a viable business venture, and encouraged each team to continue developing their venture. The most frequent comment was ” I cannot imagine what it would have been like for me to have come this far and had this kind of experience at your age.”

There is no question that all these participants will be innovative leaders in whatever they do in the future, and we expect several of them will continue to develop their business ventures. We are step-by-step developing more and more young people who can take our businesses and community to another level of success in the 21st Century. If you are interested in helping us develop more innovative leaders, please contact the Institute.