About Us

Youth About Business has prepared over 8,000 students for college and career success.

Our Mission

Fostering the development of business literacy and leadership skills.

Our mission is to expose youth to the business world through our experiential learning model, fostering the development of business literacy and leadership skills necessary to be more successful in school and in life. Over the years we have observed that our students are sucesssful in graduating from high school and attending college with many of them studying business-related majors.

Watch our Overview Video

YAB STAT:
98% of our participants graduate high school

Why Youth About Business?

Students graduate from our program prepared for success in their personal and professional lives.

At Youth About Business, we have over 25 years of experience in creating opportunities for high school students from all backgrounds to learn about the business world in a stimulating and interactive environment.

Through our programs and business camps, many of our high school students visit the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, and learn to use one of the most respected business analytical tools in the world, the Bloomberg Terminal. Every year the top-performing YAB students visit Sony’s Corporate Headquarters on Madison Avenue in New York City where they make one of their final presentations to defend the simulated Merger & Acquisition Transaction they developed over the course of our summer business camps.

While YAB is open to all students, we take care to facilitate a pipeline to success for high school students from underserved and diversity backgrounds. This helps many of our students escape the cycle of hopelessness that occurs far too often in communities across America. Once YAB students complete our programs, they become part of our alumni network, a diverse community of talent, and can transition seamlessly from student to corporate culture with a deep understanding of business and finance.

Youth About Business not only introduces students to business and leadership concepts, our challenging but fun curriculum helps them develop self confidence and habits of success that they will use throughout the rest of their lives.

YAB STAT: 98% of our participants graduate high school

Our History

One of the most innovative leadership training programs that helps young people succeed.

Youth About Business was founded as a project of Creating an Environment of Success (CES), a Tennessee based 501(c)3 not-for-profit corporation in 1992. After 17 years in the corporate sector, program founder Sam Kirk decided to change careers in order to create one of the most innovative leadership training programs to help expose young people to options in business and industry.

YAB began with only seven student participants as an entrepreneurial training program to prepare students with all the mechanics of how to successfully run a business. Sam’s dedication to Youth About Business eventually led to the development of its cornerstone program, the Youth About Business Summer Business Camp, in 1999. The Summer Business Camp has become the national component that serves as the entry point into Youth About Business. YAB currently operates its in-person programming in Tennessee, New York, Illinois, Georgia and Texas. Since the founding of Youth About Business, more than 8,000 students have participated in one or more of its educational components.

In 2020, YAB is introducing its online academy. The new virtual model allows YAB to reach more students and connect them with an even larger network of business executives and professionals.

Students, Alumni & Mentors

A few kind words about our program.

"Youth About Business is the most transformative summer experience in which I have ever participated. … Because of the tremendous exposure to industry professionals doing the same work that we were, I thereafter had the confidence to enter any building on Wall Street and feel that I deserved to be there." Injil MuhammadYAB Alumni

"As an international student, Youth About Business has taught me what it is to think outside the box and challenge myself in a way I never knew was possible." Michelle ArandiaYAB Student