Holiday Cards with a Purpose: A YEA Digitize collaboration.
2010 marks the third year that Middlesex Savings Bank has partnered with the Young Entrepreneurs Alliance (YEA - www.YEAworks.org) a Boston-area nonprofit that helps teens transform their lives and futures through the uniquely empowering experience of running their own business.
The Bank’s holiday cards were custom-designed by the students of Digitize, a teen-run digital design business at Assabet Valley Technical High School in Marlborough. Digitize is one of six student-led enterprises supported by YEA. For over a decade, YEA has been helping teens develop the confidence and skills they need to succeed – educationally, personally, and professionally. The key is an innovative three-year program that teaches teens to lead and manage a real business based in their own school. YEA partners closely with vocational school teachers, corporate and individual sponsors, business mentors, and local colleges with the goal of giving each participating teen a powerful, practical learning experience that can form the basis of a meaningful career.
MSB’s partnership with Digitize gave MSB executives the unique experience of working as both client and mentor to the students. Over the course of two meetings – first to discuss MSB’s design needs, then to review and select from among the student team’s designs – YEA teens demonstrated strong preparation and professionalism as independent designers.
“The Middlesex Savings Bank holiday card project provides our teens with a dynamic business and education experience. Real executives invest time with the students – in person, on the phone and by email. Through this interaction, YEA students learn how to behave, speak and write as real-world professionals. And, as designers, the teens have to perform because their professional reputations are at stake. It doesn’t get more real-world than that,” said Julie Nessen, director, The Young Entrepreneurs Alliance (YEA).
The MSB collaboration with Digitize exemplifies YEA’s distinct “sponsor-mentor” model, through which companies and individuals support the organization’s mission not only through financial sponsorship, but also through hands-on mentoring. MSB takes great pride in the “returns” on its investment for its own staff and, above all, for YEA teens.
In the words of former Digitize CEO Breighana Sahagian, currently a YEA board member, college student and manager at B.J.’s Wholesale Club, “My experience with YEA changed my life. By interacting with real-world mentors I became more confident in myself and what I have to offer beyond my technical skills. I learned that I could reach for more … and achieve my goals.”
This year, for the first time, Middlesex Savings Bank has commissioned an eCard as well as traditional printed holiday greetings. The eCard also features music by Indian Hill Music, a non-profit regional center for music education and performance located in Littleton, MA. Their mission is to benefit individuals, families and communities through music. The eCard that was developed by an High School Junior is certainly fun and creative, and it showcases an interesting collaboration between Middlesex, YEA and Indian Hill Music. To play the eCard, click on the penguin image to the left. We hope you enjoy it.
Click here to view last year's cards.
Click here to learn more about YEA.