Stephanie Berry

4th Period

Y.E.A.H.

            This was the last time I was going to pick up the phone before falling into

a deep sleep that night. I had just gotten off the phone with my best friend Aliky.

Now she was calling me again. It better be important, I thought.

"Yes Aliky...what is it this time?" I said with an attitude.

"I gotta tell you just one more thing, I promise!"

"What is it, so I can go to bed? Make it snappy."

"Well there's this thing Mommy wants us to go to. It's like this business school.

My cousin Mark is in it and it seems cool. She's making me go, so I'm draggin'

you with me."

"What? That's what you called me for? Aliky, get off my phone! Good night!"

            The next morning I decided to go to Aliky's house to learn more about this

"thing" her mom wanted us to go to. When I got there, we looked over the

brochure of the program, which read:

The Young Entrepreneurs at Haas School of Business (Y.E.A.H.) teaches students hot to become entrepreneurs by learning how to create business plans and later learning how to invest and save their money.

            "How boring. There ain't nothin' this program can offer me, this is just a

waste of time," I complained.

            Agreeing with me, Aliky said, "For real though. Business school? It

sounds okay, but we ain't got no choice no way. Mommy is makin' us go."

            Since I had no intentions of running my own business, I quickly lost

interest. But of course my parents thought that it would be a great experience for

me. I eventually went through the long process of filling out the application,

writing a few essays, and getting interviewed. You should have seen my face

when I looked at the application. I had a "What in the world do I look like filling

all of this out?" type of facial expression. I was not enjoying this one bit. The

application wanted me to write about why I should be in the program and why

do I want to join it--stupid redundant questions like that. I obviously had to lie

about a few things because I didn't want to make it seem as if I was getting

forced to go. In the brochure, I read that there had to be an interview before

getting chosen. "Oh my God," I thought to myself, "I hate interviews!" I could

already feel my heart beating by just imagining myself sitting in a small

congested room with some mean person, pressuring me to answer a million

silly questions. I was hoping I didn't get into the program, but to my surprise, I

made it.

            I had finally gotten a confirmation letter in the mail stating that I made it

into the program. It read:

Congratulations Stephanie! We are proud to announce that you have been accepted into the Young Entrepreneurs at Haas Program.

Now I had to take two weeks out of my summer just to attend Y.E.A.H.. I

definitely wasn't looking forward to waking up at seven o'clock in the morning,

getting on the bus, and then BART, just to get to class on time. I would have

much rather been asleep at home in my bed.

            Our two weeks at UC Berkeley were to be spent on learning the basics of

running our own businesses. Every day from nine o'clock in the morning to

about for o'clock in the afternoon we had to sit in a classroom and talk

"business." On the first day, I walked into the classroom late. I thought I was

going to get into some major trouble. It was a room full of students. I was

assuming they were all ninth graders just like me. I quietly walked in the room

and to my far left I see Aliky. I looked around the room while I wove through the

chairs, I saw some friends of mine that I hadn't talked to in a while. I waved, they

waved back. Next thing I know, the teacher in front of the room said, "Excuse me

young lady, would you hurry it up a bit and find a seat?" Being the person that I

am, I gave the teacher a mean look and finally sat down next to Aliky. I had no

idea how this day was going to turn out, but it had already started off on the

wrong side.

            By the end of the day we learned about breaking even, advertising, and

products and services. As boring as those topics may have sounded, I learned

to enjoy them. I thought that we were going to be lectured by boring old

teachers, but to my surprise the instructors were young and pretty interesting.

For every topic we learned about, there would be some kind of fun activity that

went along with it. To make out stay at Haas more amusing, we had student

mentors that would lead our group and help us with any work we had trouble

with. They were a huge help and managed to get us through our freshman

summer session at Haas.

            The next year, during my sophomore session we got a chance to create

out own business plans. Our task was to think of any hobbies that we have and

turn them into a business. After choosing a topic, we were to build a Power

Point presentation that would state the most important aspects of running our

business. In the end, each of us were going to present our Power Points to a

panel of judges. The winner was to receive a two hundred dollar savings bond.

During this process, each group of two or three kids had college students as

mentors to guide them through the creation of their presentations. I was lucky

enough to have two wonderful mentors, Stream and Loic. Every other Saturday

during the school year, we would all meet at Haas and work on our Power

Points. I was so clueless about what to do at first, but they helped me every step

of the way. The whole process was long and rough. But we got through it. One

Saturday afternoon we had to meet up and do some last minute changes to our

slides and a brief run through. I was actually excited to get some feedback on

my presentation this time. When I got there, my mentors were ready to work.

Right in the middle of my “practice” presentation, I heard a familiar voice from

the door.

            “Stephanie! Psst! Why didn’ you answer the phone?” I had no clue whom

the voice belonged to. I slowly turned around and seen Aliky with a disturbed

look on her face.

            “Sorry, Liky, unlike you, I’m actually tryin’ to get some work done,” I

explained.

            “Well I needed to talk to you,” Aliky said quietly.

            I made sure it was okay with my group to take a little break while Aliky quickly pulled me to the side and began to whine, “I’m hella mad. My fuckin’

mentors ain’t even helpin’ me with my shit. Yall over here doin’ work and I

barely got my slides together. They be sittin’ in MySpace and shit. I ask them

one simple question and they get mad at me. What am I bout to do Steph? ”I

really didn’t know what to say to her at that point. But I had to think of something

fast before I got into any trouble.

            “How about this stupid. I can ask my mentors if they can help you. We’re

basically done with out stuff, so yeah. Let me do that and I’ll let you know,” I

finally said. I walked over to Stream and Loic and told them the whole situation.

They understood everything and agreed to take Aliky in as another member of

our group.

            My mentors were the ones who actually helped me run through my slides

one by one. I learned how to speak slowly and clearly. With their help, I created

a well-put-together presentation on my dream dance camp.

            April 23, 2005, was our big day to present. At nine o'clock on the dot, presentations

began and I was up first. There I was in my business suit and high heels, sweating up a

storm. No one could have been as nervous as I was at that point. "Hello, my name is

Stephanie Berry and I am here to tell you about the business I've created." Once I started,

there was no turning back. My mind went to a blank a few times, but Stream and Loic

where right by my side to help me get back on track. My presentation lasted about ten

minutes.

“Thank you for taking time out of your day to listen to my presentation. Are there any questions?” Finally, I was done. There was a huge applause. I saw my mom and best friend clapping for me and Stream and Loic approached me with hugs. When I reached the end of my slides, I felt relieved. I felt like all my hard work finally paid off. I had never presented in front of a large crowd before, but my mentors and parents said that it seemed as if I was some kind of professional. They said it looked like I had been doing presentations like that all my life. Just the feeling of accomplishing such a project helped me come to a realization. From that day forward, I decided that I would make going to YEAH a lifetime commitment.

            I went into this program close-minded because I had no clue what it had to offer me. After my second year, my whole mentality changed. I grew to love YEAH, the YEAH staff and my fellow YEAH classmates. I found myself applying to YEAH for my junior and now senior year in high school. Not only has YEAH taught me how to work well with others, gain confidence and present in front of huge crowds, YEAH has also given me my first real job. Me being a mentor reminded me of when I first started Y.E.A.H. I worked on the UC Berkeley campus as a student mentor with the class of 2011 freshman and 2010 sophomores.

My freshman group was the most memorable. I had to work with five kids, Gene, Filip, Alex, Jared, and Samantha. These five kids were the shyest people I’ve ever met. It seemed as if they were never going to break out of their shells. Me, also being a shy person, didn’t think our group would work well together. I was wrong. A few days into their first week at Y.E.A.H. they got comfortable with each other and even me.

One day they had to speak with a group of college students from Haas and tell them what they know about the Y.E.A.H. Program, it was a part of their midterm or something. I was just there to answer any unanswered questions. One of the college students asked my group a question, “How do you feel about you mentor and do you think they help you or not?” I got a little nervous because I really had no clue about how they felt about me. I just stood and listened.

Gene, the most outgoing of the bunch, answered, “We hate her. She’s so mean and I wish we had another mentor.” At that point, I didn’t know if I should laugh or run away and cry. My kids’ feelings towards me meant so much. I waited awhile longer for someone else to speak up.

Jared, one of the smartest thirteen year olds I knew, quickly agreed with Gene, “Yeah she’s horrible. She doesn’t even like us.” Oh no, I thought, this is on camera my boss is going to watch this. I waited again.

            Samantha, the most reserved, responded, “Shut up you two. Stephanie’s cool. She’s so funny! Yall like her, stop playin’!” Finally. The truth came out. It was all a joke--they LOVED me. I felt happy inside again. I look around at my kids and I see Alex and Filip nodding their heads, agreeing to what Samantha had just said. They adored me as well, who wouldn’t?

The next thing I know, Jared and Gene are apologizing to me. They cleared up the fact that they were just kidding around and they enjoy my presence. They made my summer. I was glad to see that I helped my group the way Stream and Loic helped me. Without Y.E.A.H., I wouldn’t have been able to experience what I have experienced.