Southeastern hosts YEA! Northshore winner

Officials from Southeastern Louisiana University and the Young Entrepreneurs Academy recently met with student Libny Hernandez of Hammond High Magnet School, this year’s second place winner of the 17th Annual National Competition in New York. YEA is an innovative after school program where seventh through 12th grade students generate business ideas, conduct market research, write business plans, pitch to a panel of investors, and launch their very own companies. Southeastern is the host of YEA! Northshore through its Small Business Development Center.

The students selected to compete had participated in a local nine-month program in which participants attended classes and worked with mentors and investors to develop and pitch their business ideas. Hernandez was the winner of the 2024-2025 YEA! Northshore class and qualified to compete on a national level. As the second place winner, she was awarded two scholarships and a cash prize. She worked 23-weeks in which she developed her commercial dumpster cleaning business, Fresh Dump. The full competition can be seen on the Young Entrepreneurs Academy (YEA!) YouTube channel.

Pictured, from left, are Joe Jaeger of Jaeger Companies; Southeast Louisiana Business Center Training Coordinator Karen Romero; Jake Chapman of Sisung Capital; Bill Kingsmill, founder of KPG Realty, LLC; Southeastern President William S. Wainwright; Libny Hernandez; Project Services Consultant Shelby P. LaSalle, Jr., LLC; Rick Danielson of Danielson Tate Capital Partners; Professional Speaker, 16 Minutes Cynthia Widlitze; G. Chris Keller, Jr. of CEO Resource Bank; Southeastern Professor and Dean of the College of Business Tara’ Lopez; and Vice President of Marketing and Government Affairs of Cleco Eric Schouest.