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Ashley Magallanes
Professor Malvin
English 114B
13 April, 2016
The Youth Business Development Program
Throughout the Los Angeles area, there are different clubs and resource centers that
provide students with general academic assistance and activities. Though there are many of these
clubs, not many specialize in serving students with assistance in just one specific topic. The
project that Im creating focuses on serving business-industry resources to low-income high
school and college students who are planning to pursue a career within the business field. At The
Youth Business Development Program, our goal is to provide great resources such as business
courses, scholarships, internships, tutoring and internet access in order for students to receive
what is needed to build up connections and a positive future, with no charge. Along with that,
they will also get to meet CEOs, small business owners and others who are involved within
different departments in the business field, this will assist them with professional networking
leading to opportunities. This will create an environment of determination, ambition and
creativity that will motivate them to reach their goal. The majority of low-income students do not
have the resources that the YBD Program has to offer and will be found nowhere else for a no
charge fee. The main goal of this program is to simply bring great resources to the Los Angeles
students in the Venice, CA area and to help them improve and build connections, as well as to be
passionate about what theyre involving themselves in.
Low-income students end up associating themselves with those who they share
neighborhoods with, who also end up being the same economic status as them. This is because

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different economic statuses dont tend to mix in within the same neighborhood which leads to
such diversity and hierachy. The students that will benefit from this program will be the students
in the Venice, Ca area. In the city of Venice, there is a very diverse setting of social classes due to
the surrounding cities. The cities of Culver City, Westchester and Inglewood, where most
students come from a low-income household. This meaning that most of the families the students
come from are low paying and hard labor working jobs. The workers, who may typically be the
students parents or another family member, are not involved or dont associate with the higher
up authority of the companies that they work for. Theyre behind the scenes of the successful
business, as the owners receive the credit as if theyre the ones working hard working long hours
whether in the fields or factories. Its as if there is an invisible wall between the workers and the
upper authorities, discriminating the workers into the behind the scenes. This being that the
workers do not know the high-profiled people entering the doors of where they work and do not
understand how powerful they really are because theyre blocked off from those individuals. As
for the high-income families who do associate with other wealthy people due to the areas in
which they surround themselves in, they do end up building connections with those of upper
authority and powerful individuals. Which then leads to building a relationship and from there
they help each other out and continue to build a stronger foundation of power for themselves.
Those who are labor workers for the company do not have the advantage of being surrounded by
people of high status due to the surroundings and people that they typically associate themselves
with. That also meaning that their children arent being surrounded by them, so if ones child is
interested in learning more about business or needs a source of networking, they have to do a lot
of research on their own because they arent exposed to networking and dont understand the
great benefits of it. There needs to be a way for each and every student to receive the same

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amount of opportunities and assistance to better their future, and that is what the YDB Program
has to offer.
The YBD Program will offer any assistance needed to the students who have set goals
towards taking over or assisting a business one day. This program will be developed to provide
low-income students who dont have the resources and the support needed in order to become
successful in the business field. As Jessica Piliska states in her article, How to Help Low-Income
Students Cross the Finish Line from College to Career, Every student needs to learn how to
build and leverage professional relationships. Now a day it is all about networking to become
successful in the business field. One also needs experience in what theyre planning to do so they
know what theyre getting themselves into. It has been specifically designed as a resource for
low-income students because they dont have the luxury of being able to reach out as easy to
resources as it is for families who are wealthy and have that advantage. There are certain
expectations and experiences one needs, especially in the business field, so this offers a great
amount of experience and resources. The YBD Program will provide computers and printers for
those without access to technology. A small library will also be installed within the space that
allows students easy access to rent books. One-on-one and group tutoring will be provided all
year long to ensure the education and future for students. The YBD Program will have
classrooms, a community/presentation room and quiet rooms where a student can either study or
receive private tutoring. The layout of the space will provide time for students and mentors to
enjoy time together as well as time to focus on their studies, but most importantly, a safe, funlearning environment. Similar to the environment of LACMA with the positive vibes and new
experiences for everyone around while enjoying it, thats what I want for this program. The
LACMA museum is a space that has inspired the structure of the The YBD Program due to the

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fun-learning and findings of new interest that the guest experience. The YBD Program will be a
space created that will not hold students back from learning new things as theyre gaining
experience and information on a passionate interest of theirs.
In order for a student to be apart of the program there are minor requirements that will
need to be met throughout the nine months they participate throughout the year. Each student
will need to complete forty hours of community service outside of the program which will teach
them help those who are less fortunate than they are and to learn how to give without receiving
anything in return. As well as with the completion of courses that are offered at the program
which would be business finance, business management, business administration and a class
based on how to use Microsoft excel, word and power point. Students must pass the courses at
the end of the year in order to move on to the next level of instruction. The levels being an easy
introduction level, medium being a level that makes sure all material is understood and hard as
the most intense, challenging level. At the end of the year each student must also write an essay
reflecting on their improvement and how they plan on doing better for the following year in the
program. The hours that the program will operate will be after school hours since each
participant is a student. The hours would range from four in the evening to nine at night. This
gives students enough time to make it after school and also make it home at a decent time.
Though the hours may not accommodate to everyone schedule, there can be appointments made
since the program has been created to fall around the needs of the students.
Creating a space like this will have negative and positive encounters that will affect the
program. There may be parties who claim it is unfair to all students and that there is no
realistically way to fund for this program. But I would have to disagree with them. There are
plenty of tutoring programs in the Los Angeles areas like LA Tutors, Academic Achievers and

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Varsity Tutors that charge at a starting price of fifty dollars per hour of tutoring, which not all
students are able to afford. That is simply a way of discriminating a student from receiving the
help that they need which is wrong because as presented in an article on the The Opportunity
Network Tutoring has a history as a tool to improve students academic achievement in the
United States. Giving students who do not have the luxury of extra resources the help that they
need will indeed improve our economy and society as a whole. The more educated, successful
students that society has will benefit our economy all around due to the successful businesss,
projects and assistance that they will be able to bring. The easier access to resources for students
who have none will keep them from dropping out of school, giving up on their goals and getting
themselves involved into the wrong situations. The generation of students are only getting
smarter and have potential to make something of themselves and the cities that they come from.
As Mike Davis claims in Twilight Los Angeles, 1992, we need sunshine and, and, and, and
fresh air, because the price of it is the self-destruction of a generation of kids who are so hip and
so smart but who in some way, so susceptible to despair across, you know, across the board
(28). There are thousands of students whose education and successfulness are being held back
from there which is leading them into getting involved with things that may cause harm to them.
This generation of students in low-income households deserve all the help needed in order to
succeed with themselves because they carry the potential to do so.
The Business Youth Development program will bring a positive impact into the Venice
community. Creating The YBD Program will lead to being a positive creating due to the
reasoning that both Siri Warkentien and Sarah Gradly both strongly believe that Expanding
opportunity for more students to enroll and succeed in college, especially low-income and
underrepresented students, is vital to building a strong economy and a strong middle class. Not

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only will this program benefit current students, but future students as well. This will be a place
for students to find confidence and gain the skills needed to reach the level of achievement that
theyre striving for. This program will cater to the students wants and provide them with any
assistance they may need, our main focus is just to provide students with the best resources and
motivational support. It will be designed to be a safe, comforting environment that will tend to
the needs of students. I can view this program positively impacting the lives of low-income
students since it is such a great use of resource. It will definitely assist them with achieving their
goals and becoming who theyre destined to be.

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Works Cited
Piliska, Jessica. How to Help Low-Income Students Cross the Finish Line from College to
Career. The Huffington Post. N.p., 19 Aug. 2013. Web 8 Apr. 2016.
Smith, Anna Deavere. Twilight-- Los Angles, 1992. New York, NY: Dramatists Play Service,
2003. Print.
Warkentien, Siri, and Sarah Grady. "Students' Use of Tutoring Service, by Adequate Yearly
Progress Status of School." National Center for Education Statistics. N.p., Nov. 2009.
Web. 10 Apr. 2016.
"The Opportunity Network and President Obama Pledge to Help Thousands More Low-Income
High School Students to Complete College and Start Careers." The Opportunity
Network Inc. N.p., 4 Dec. 2014. Web. 8 Apr. 2016.

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Evaluation Letter
The majority of the time that Im assigned a writing assignment, I tend to procrastinate. Which
then causes me to scramble all my thoughts onto paper last minute and does not leave me with
enough time to overlook what I wrote and edit. This time around though for this essay, I
thankfully did not procrastinate. Having the rough draft deadline due date really helped me with
putting my thoughts onto paper with still having enough time to check over my work and fix
things up. I have learned that there is no negative aspect to writing rough drafts or to start an
essay before the due date. This time, I have definitely learned how to push myself to finish an
assignment and the importance of leaving extra time to make improvements.