“Be Your Own Boss” Day Camp educates kids on how to build their own brands

BEAVER, WV (WVNS) – Being your own boss is a dream for many people and kids in Raleigh County got the chance to do just that!

Gear-Up Southern West Virginia completed a three day “Be Your Own Boss” day camp.

It was held at New River Community and Technical College for rising 8th and 9th graders from Mercer, Raleigh, Monroe, Summers, and Wyoming Counties.

Kids built their own personal brands at the camp.

One of the founders of My1of1 , A.J. Metdals, came all the way from Los Angeles to instruct campers on how they could go about this process.

Hunter McDaniel, one of the students who took part in the camp, said he is learning a lot from the camp.

“Every human sees 5,000 ads a day,” McDaniel explained. “So, every brand, every company – they all have their own logo. If my friend, Robert Schmid, is going in for culinary and he opens his own restaurant, he needs a logo for that restaurant. So, turning to this camp that helps us inspire through graphic interior design, he’ll know how to make a logo.”

Students were also allowed to make their own merchandise and apparel to be distributed for profit through My1of1. Metdals tells 59News that kids will be able to sell items through his company long after this camp ends too.

The best part – it is all free of charge to the students. Students will also make $13 per commission.

Metdals said this entrepreneurship-based camp helps set these kids up for success.

“There’s just a lot of creative students,” Metdals said. “I want to expose them not only to entrepreneurship, but, most importantly, just expose them to a lot of different marketing career paths. A lot of times, we don’t even think about [marketing] growing up, but we know these digital platforms and companies look for students like this that know the future is digital.”

Gear Up Southern West Virginia Coordinator, Tammy Mills, told 59News that the end of the week’s day camp will not be the end for these students or for Metdals either.

“The culmination event for the Be Your Own Boss Day Camp is on July 30 at 6 p.m. It is a product reveal, where students will showcase all of the products that they created and all the shirts and hats, and things,” said Mills.

Metdals said they intend to show off the products in a runway type of show with vogue-esque music. Students will show off their merch and students will receive five items made in a workshop for the runway day.

If you would like to see or purchase any of these kids’ merchandise, visit their collection.

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