The city of Memphis has a long history of fostering entrepreneurship, and now one organization aims to make a change through entrepreneurial education.
Inner L.I.G.H.T. is a local nonprofit founded by David Rose in 2012 that focuses on creating positive impact in communities through interactive youth programs. The organization recently held the second annual Start Camp at the
Crews Center for Entrepreneurship, the University of Memphis think-tank space. The camp gives Memphis high school students the opportunity to learn entrepreneurial thinking and cultivate their own ideas and businesses during a week-long summer camp.
The idea for Start Camp came about in April of 2014; Rose had already been operating an after-school literacy lab for 3rd through 5th graders during the school year. He realized that he needed to create something for an older demographic, and he wanted to offer students something positive to do with their time over summer break. What the students really needed was to be engaged in was entrepreneurship, something he himself has always been very passionate about.
“Entrepreneurship in itself is not tailored to any demographic or ethnic background; it’s about what ideas you have and getting the world to understand and engage in those ideas,” said Rose.
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David Rose, founder of Inner L.I.G.H.T., and Mike Hoffmeyer, director of the Crews Center for Entrepreneurship
Mike Hoffmeyer at the Crews Center for Entrepreneurship helped to create the camp content and works to educate the students with Rose. “This is a pretty unique entrepreneurship facility, and we want bright young students in Memphis to see what the University of Memphis has to offer in terms of entrepreneurial opportunities,” he said.
The focus of this year’s Start Camp was to teach the students how to create change within their own communities. “We purposely chose the topic of social entrepreneurship this summer,” said Hoffmeyer. “This generation is particularly socially sensitive and interested in changing the world. What we’re trying to do is teach them the entrepreneurial mindset and matching that with a deeper awareness of Memphis’ social issues, because we have some big ones.”
Rose said that they decided on the topic because it is what Memphis needs as a community, “not just people making money off of a good product, people making progress and social change from good products.”
The issues targeted by the students were challenging and, unfortunately, commonplace. The tackled issues that Memphis as a city faces daily.
For the project, one group created the layout of a community center that aims to lower youth violence and crime, provide sexual education for teens to lower teen pregnancy, and offer a place for youth innovation. A second group worked to create a social app that allows young Memphians to become informed and communicate on important issues. The third made an app that works to bolster young women in Memphis by informing them of positive female role models and influencers and providing them with direct hot lines for female issues. The final group came up with the idea for technological innovation of sustainable batteries to power homes.
Devon Carruthers will be a senior at Power Center Academy and is attending Start Camp for the first time this summer. He has a passion for his city and plans on returning to Memphis after he receives his college degree. “I just want to help Memphis, that’s my goal in life. Once I’ve reached that I can retire, which means I’ll probably never retire because there’s always room for improvement. But it’s something I want to commit my life to,” said Carruthers.
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Start Camp attendees brainstorm ideas for their business
He hasn’t been at the camp for long but already feels very strongly about what it can accomplish with Memphis youth. “I think it can be a great outlet for kids who don’t have anything to do and who end up going down the wrong path. I want to make something that makes kids feel proud of Memphis,” he said.
Devon’s brother Darron loved Start Camp so much last year that he signed up again. He became group leader last summer and led his group to win the Shark Tank style pitch-off at the end of the week. “The thing is, classes at school force us to memorize but they don’t make us come up with new ideas,” he said. "So what we do here is come up with ideas of our own through creative thinking.”
Natia Wade, soon to be a senior at Pathways in Education, said that the camp taught her skills that will help her in life, wherever she decides to go. She is starting her own business making decorative phone cases and is working on her marketing and brand strategy. “I now have the business tools and the know-how to get things done. The people, the education, the advice, and the conversations that I have had at Start Camp have been great. It has shown me that I can own my own business. It’s absolutely possible,” said Wade.
Hoffmeyer said that the most important thing the students are learning at camp is belief in self. “I think that’s what the youth movement is missing. We have to teach these kids to believe in themselves, because if they think they can do it, they will go out there and attempt it.”
Alexia Bouey will be a senior at Ridgeway this fall and loves that the camp allows them to brainstorm their own ideas. “I feel like this is a big think tank, there is never a wrong answer,” she said. “I think it’s really going to impact Memphis. There are a lot of teenagers out there that want to start their own businesses but they never think they can do it. This camp gave me an opportunity to explore that possibility.”
The students that attend Start Camp are as diverse as the city they hail from. Rose emphasizes that Inner L.I.G.H.T. wants to reach teens of all different backgrounds, ethnic groups, and social classes. “Private school kids are sitting down with at-risk kids and picking each other’s brains on how to solve social issues in Memphis. It’s a chance to see that they’re not so different after all,” said Rose.
“It’s about a collaborative effort between people from all over the city. We have to be able to work together,” said Rose, who hopes the camp will grow to multiple locations all over the city.
Hoffmeyer believes that Start Camp could evolve to encompass the many organizations in Memphis that work to promote youth entrepreneurship. “Imagine the collaborative power, if all of these like-minded entities worked together to provide something that was unified in purpose and direction and what we could accomplish in terms of raising that visibility of entrepreneurship in youth. That’s what I see in five years: the community rising up and creating a movement out of this,” Hoffmeyer said.
For more information download the Inner L.I.G.H.T. app or visit their website. Contact
David Rose for sponsorship or volunteer availabilities.