With his “Cool Comics” pitch during the YWCA Kids Place’s Guppy Tank Challenge, Lucas Strodbeck was recognized nationally by the Young Entrepreneur Institue’s Young Entrepreneur Pitch Challenge!

Lucas was one of 1,000 students across the country who participated. His winning pitch can be viewed on the Young Entrepreneur Institute website.

To inspire youth to think like entrepreneurs, YWCA Kids Place participated in the Young Entrepreneur Pitch Challenge, Out-of-School Time. Youth were charged with examining problems in their everyday lives - and the world around them - identifying solutions and pitching them. Recordings of their videos were entered into a national competition and judged by community and business leaders in August.

Prior to creating their pitches, YWCA Kids Place delivered a series of lessons introducing the kids to entrepreneurial thinking. It also facilitated exercises and group activities that allowed students to explore problems and opportunities to solve them and consider how they intersect with their unique skills and interests.

“Introducing young people to entrepreneurship fosters important life skills,” said Christina Walls, managing director of education at YWCA Columbus. “These skills are invaluable as our kids move out of our programs to join the workforce.”

Learning about entrepreneurship allows students to view their local community through an entrepreneurial lens and develop and flex in-demand workforce skills identified by the World Economic Forum in their 2023 Future of Jobs Report. These include analytical thinking, creativity, curiosity, and flexibility.