Victor Hui, a junior marketing major, is helping urban high school kids build a business. Victor, a member of the B-W chapter of Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE), is working with an organization called E CITY on a project with the Cleveland Municipal Schools.
E CITY stands for Entrepreneurship: Connecting, Inspiring and Teaching Youth. Its founder, local businessman John Zitzner, believes one way to tackle urban poverty is to “turn around our inner-city one young entrepreneur at a time.”
SIFE is a global, non-profit organization, open to all majors. With chapters on 1,600 campuses in 40 countries, it offers students the chance to develop leadership, teamwork and communication skills.
The SIFE chapter at B-W has several outreach programs that involve its members in the community, helping them both learn and teach the principles of free enterprise.
Since August, Victor has been an adviser/ consultant to the young entrepreneurs who operate a store at Success Tech Academy in downtown Cleveland, selling school supplies and snacks. The store, Slippin’ on Supplies, or S.O.S., is open before and after school and between classes. Victor helps with scheduling and coaches the kids.
When they found they didn’t have as many customers as hoped, Victor suggested a brainstorming session where the students decided to add potato chips, candy bars, ice cream and juice. He also suggested a cart, so the students could sell snacks to school administrators whose offices are on the first floor of the building where Success Tech is housed.
The kids are learning about retailing, salesmanship, marketing, inventory management and control, procurement, accounting and finance, “people skills” and human resource issues. “They have so much enthusiasm,” he said. “These are very self-motivated kids. They’re very dedicated, and they’re going to be successful. These are the future leaders of the community - if we can keep them here.”
Born in Hong Kong, Victor grew up in Canada and moved to Cleveland in 2002. After attending Cuyahoga Community College, he transferred to B-W in the fall. His aunt owns a restaurant, the South China Wok in Broadview Heights, where he has worked since moving here, and his parents have owned several restaurants as well.
“I come from an entrepreneurial family,” he said. “Business is in my blood.”
Victor said the store provides a great learning experience for the high school students and for him. coupled with the business experience he’s gained working in his family’s restaurants, the E CITY project is giving him management and entrepreneurship experience.
The B-W SIFE chapter is working on several other projects with E CITY, including business plan coaching and teaching entrepreneurship to high school students. SIFE students plan to present a summary of their year’s projects in April at a regional competition in Cleveland. They hope to advance to a national competition in May, as they did in 2004.
275 Eastland Rd.