Camp Start-Up Goes to Silicon Valley
This year, IMI is partnering with Kiva—the San Francisco-based online micro-lending platform. Kiva, which empowers budding entrepreneurs around the world, will bring its expertise on global citizenship, socially responsible start ups, and impact investing to Camp Start-Up.
“Where better to prepare the next generation for an economy that is being continuously altered by technological and economic dipruptions?” asks, Independent Means CEO and founder, Joline Godfrey. “Entrepreneurship is the defining skill of the 21st century. Whether you want to produce a groundbreaking film, create the next great mobile application, foster growth in developing countries, or become a leader in medical discoveries, if you can’t manage a budget to keep the project afloat, you can’t realize your dreams. If you can’t articulate a financial narrative to match your great idea, you may not be taken seriously.
This year Camp Start-Up will be held at Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, CA, from July 10–21. Over the course of 12 days, teens will visit some of Silicon Valley’s most intriguing businesses and host cutting-edge entrepreneurs and philanthropists engaged in fields such as alternative energy, space, bio-technology, micro-finance, and disaster preparedness.
Elly Beyer, a Camp Start-Up alum, says, “Camp-Start-Up was a life changing experience for me. Not only did I gain valuable business guidance, but I changed as a person. Now I have a confident outlook toward the future—I have a direction and a plan.”
Camp Director and COO of Independent Means, Inc., Whitney Webb says, “The need for teens and young adults to ‘make a job, not take a job’ becomes more apparent every day, and this year’s camp is the perfect intro to exploring passions and prepping for what their impact will be on the world. This program is what I wish I had had access to before I went off to college and the ‘real world’.”
Independent Means, Inc. is based in Santa Barbara, CA, and offers multiple programs that help families engage the next generation in their own financial fluency. For more information on Camp Start-Up, contact Genine Iffla at info@independentmeans.com, call (805) 965-0475, or visit http://www.independentmeans.com/camp-start-up/.