2024 Summer Recap!

SofYE’s third summer of the tuition-free entrepreneurship program took place at our new, generous, and permanent space, just a block from Sunset Cliffs, with additional space to blow off steam at the adjacent field and basketball courts. The SofYE Summer Experience served over 60 Middle School students from a diverse background, representing 16 schools with many returning alums, and included complimentary field trip transportation and Ki’s catered lunch, thanks to the generous support of private and corporate sponsors. These young minds are open, curious, and excited about the promise of their potential entrepreneurial journeys!

Unique to 2024, and to be repeated in summer 2025, UCSD Office of Innovation and Commercialization (OIC) hosted an entire camp week, and featured student and graduate speakers, as well as visits to their Qualcomm Institute Audio Spatialization Lab, Makerspace, and MAVERIC XR Studio. These were great facilities to develop their business team’s prototypes and websites, as students evolved their business ideas around innovation, marketing, sustainability, and business ethics. The pitch panel of judges included the Innovation Director, who said that some of our students’ pitches were better than the college student pitches! OIC is a magical place for students to explore their curiosity about entrepreneurship!

Aside from fun at the beach, bowling, and mini golf, we explored for-profit and not-for-profit businesses through field trips, which included The Rady Shell, where students watched a live S.D. Symphony Disney-themed rehearsal and toured the facility, the Lions, Tigers, & Bears animal sanctuary in Alpine, visits to The Kensington Cafe, The Haven Pizzeria, and Ponce’s Mexican Restaurant in the Kensington business district, and a behind the scenes tour of Petco Park. Our Co-directors, Hope Herrera (Cafes) and Andreas Eros (Martial Arts School), are both entrepreneurs in their own right. Teaching staff included Mr. Elias and Miss Avery, both university students studying business.

Featured speakers were local entrepreneurs who inspired and mentored our youth, including founders from Public Square coffee shop in La Mesa, ClickUp, Social Syndicate restaurant group, Invert Containers, Dehiya Beauty, and Little Lion Cafe in Ocean Beach. Many of these presenters and field trips had common threads running through them, including social responsibility, sustainability, the meaningfulness of entrepreneurship, perseverance, resilience, and the winding path to success.