YEA (Young Entrepreneurs Academy) program helps local high school students become entrepreneurs. Throughout the years, students create business ideas, do market research, pitch to investors and more.
During the 2025-2026 school year on tuesday April 21, four Altoona students graduated from the YEA program. Juniors Addison Melnik, Riley Piotti, Kaylee Hawn, and Sophomore Jack Hoyne all graduated from the YEA program.
“Graduating as a YEA student means that I have successfully completed a program where I learned how to create my own business and develop an entrepreneurial mindset,” Melnik said. “It pushed me to take initiative, challenge myself and use creative thinking to express and develop my ideas.”
Students have a weekly three hour class to help train them to become future entrepreneurs.
“They develop a business, so they’re meeting with other business leaders or meeting with community members,” junior assistant principal Erik Dambeck said.
Vaughn was awarded third place in the class. She was awarded $1,000 to help her get her company up and started. YEA is a program that has students from all over the district.
“I felt very accomplished in myself, and very proud,” Hawn said. “I’m going to invest in all the products and then place them into different stores.”
Graduating YEA sets up students for their future, and helps students who are interested in becoming entrepreneurs or CEOs.
“It means that I’m advancing quicker than most people would be, and I’m now more set up than an average 15 year old for life,” Hoyne said. “ So you start out with an interview, and once you’re accepted, it’s a long process, and then once you graduate, you walk away with a larger network than a lot of people would have at your age. It’s a lot easier to connect with local businesses.”
Students start off by creating a product or a nonprofit idea. YEA helps that idea become a real product and potentially a business.
“They set you up with how to become a CEO and what to do when you go out in the real world,” Piotti said. “We also have guest speakers and stuff that will talk to you about stuff as well. They also teach how to actually do presentations and give you that confidence.”
