Today is presentation day at MBV day 5 and is also empowerment day. Today’s sponsor is The Richard M. Schulze family foundation. Once again, I would just like to thank our sponsors so much for working with us and supporting our students. MBV would not be possible without them, and we will forever be grateful for our sponsors. Thank you so much Richard M. Schulze Family Foundation for sponsoring empowerment day!
We started the day off with our first keynote speaker: Chloe Ginkel. She is a college student at St. Thomas who is majoring in entrepreneurship. She talked to our students about how to make a difference, not only in the business world, but how to make a difference in society and in your community through business and entrepreneurship. She gave our students 5 major lessons on how to be successful in the business world and how to stand out. She told us about her own experiences on how she got involved in entrepreneurship. She shared her personal story about how she started her first small business when she was in high school and how she became passionate about business and entrepreneurship. Her passion for business started there, but she was not sure if that is what she wanted to do in college and for the rest of her life. It wasn’t until she was given an opportunity to help others and make a difference in someone’s life through an idea that she had that changed her life completely. She realized how much entrepreneurship and business can stem from one problem that turns into an idea, and soon enough you can save and change lives. Her message is so important in which business is not just selling products and making money, but it is having ideas and creating something that can solve major problems and issues that will make a difference in society and will make a positive impact in the world. This was an amazing speech with a great message that our students will use in their future, so we are fortunate for Chloe to share her story to inspire our students to make a difference in the world.
After that great keynote, the students then went into a breakout session to get some last-minute tips and tricks about how to effectively present their business plans! After that quick breakout session, they had a break for lunch and then it was time for what we’ve all been waiting for all week: the business plan presentations! We had business professionals come in to volunteer as our judges. The companies had 15 minutes to present and then the judges had 5 minutes to talk amongst themselves on what loan to give the companies. Some companies even got the loan they asked for which is incredible! All the companies did amazing and presented and explained their ideas and plans so well! They also answered all of the questions that the judges asked so well! We are so happy and excited to see all of their hard work pay off in the end! We are so proud of our students!
After our business plans, we had our last keynote speaker of the week. PJ Hill came and talked about his story. He talked about all the hardships he’s been through and how he had these opportunities that came towards him. One takeaway from this keynote is to never be afraid to say yes, because sometimes that yes can change your whole entire life forever. PJ Hill grew up playing basketball and had so many opportunities playing in college for great teams that he never said no to and always took the risk. He was given the opportunity to play in great teams in college and then was given the opportunity to play professionally in Europe while travelling the world. He was given all these opportunities due to his hard work, motivation, and dedication to the sport. Due to his hard work, he was able to come from no money with nowhere to live, to traveling the world and growing his income with every opportunity that came his way. When his basketball career came to an end, he was given another opportunity: a chance to work in the business world. This was a game changer for PJ because he had no experience or business schooling, but because of his constant hard work, dedication, and motivation, he studied every night and ultimately became an amazing businessman because of it. This story was so inspirational for our students in which it taught our students that you can do anything if you put in the work. It might be super hard at first, but it will all work out in the end. This keynote was some of our students’ favorite of the week where we had long lines with kids wanting pictures and asking even more questions! It was so great to see students be so excited and engaged in this keynote!
After that amazing keynote, we had dinner one last time, and then went into company meetings to write letters to thank our sponsors. After that, we played minute to win it! Each company chose a representative for their company who played in mini games. There were so many fun games where the kids went head-to-head in such as limbo, Oreo challenge, balloon challenge, and the balancing challenge. They had so much fun and after that we had our MBV dance! There was a Dj with food, drinks, dancing, bowling, ping pong, pool, and arcade games! It was so much fun and all of the campers had a blast! It was the best way to end an amazing week with so many fun memories that our campers will remember forever! Our campers are so fortunate to have had this opportunity of a lifetime!
