Carteret Youth Camps - 7 Years and Still Going Strong!
By Shannon Gallagher
As the summer begins to wind down, so too are many of the Youth Camps that have been occurring across the state. In the past year, over 20 Youth Camps occurred from eastern to western North Carolina. One of the longest running programs in the east is Carteret Community College’s Youth Entrepreneurship Camp and Heritage Youth Camp. The Carteret Community College Entrepreneurship Camps were started by Betsy DeCampo, the Business and Industry Coordinator at Carteret Community College, in 2005 and she has seen them progress over the years.
Betsy says she originally started the Youth Camps because “89-90% of businesses in Carteret County have less than 5 employees, and I thought it was good for students to see entrepreneurship is an option.” As the camps progressed from year to year Betsy has seen the numbers enrolled in the camps increase as well as added a second youth camp to the area, the Heritage Youth Camp.
The first camp, the Heritage Youth Camp, took place from June 27, 2011 to July 1, 2011. This camp focused on the heritage of Carteret County and introduced participants to heritage and cultural entrepreneurship as a potential career option. Participants identified opportunities for local small business ventures and as a team went through the business planning process to develop and implement a business idea. On the final day, graduation day, participants presented their business idea and their commercial to a panel of judges from the local community. Their business ideas reflected the need in the community for businesses that support tourism, fishing and boating. They included an RV service business, and sports and fishing store and a one stop store with a bookstore, candy shop and general supplies.
Carteret Community College held their regular Entrepreneurship Youth Camp from July 18, 2011 to July 22, 2011. This camp introduced participants to entrepreneurship as a career option. Participants went through the same business planning steps as the Heritage Youth Camp participants—they assessed the community and worked as teams to create a business idea to fit their interests and the community need. The student businesses focused on the lack of entertainment in their community. They businesses included a comedy club, a music shop and a movie theater.
I was fortunate to attend both graduations and to meet the participants, see their excitement on their graduation day and hear everything they had learned throughout the week. Participants unanimously agreed with Tyler Outlaw when he said, “I thought the camp was very fun, gave us an opportunity to learn about entrepreneurship and we had a good time this week.” Michael Burton said his favorite part of the camp was “learning what it took to make a business and manage a check book.” One aspiring young entrepreneur at the camp, Isaiah Newby, already had a yard service business in Havelock and did a fantastic job selling his services! Betsy DeCampo said that the best part of the youth camps are “seeing the final presentations to see how much the participants have learned and running into the participants later out in the community.”