Manhattan Beach Young Entrepreneurs Academy Chooses Two Winners
Apr 02, 2025 11:03PM ● By Mb News Staff
The Manhattan Beach Young Entrepreneurs Academy (YEA!), the popular business start-up course for local students, has named not one but two top winners from its Class of 2025.
Now in its 11th year, YEA! awarded 18 student businesses investment awards, and chose two standout businesses for the prestigious Saunders Scholars Award. The top businesses are:
HipDigz, created by Lili Shaer: Padded volleyball shorts designed to reduce in-game injuries.
Nyft Strip, invented by Simon Uslander: An eco-friendly package sealer that preserves food while reducing plastic waste.
(Lili Shaer)
(Simon Uslander, center)Both students will represent Manhattan Beach in the Saunders Scholars National Competition on May 3, competing against top student businesses from 20 other YEA! chapters nationwide. The event will be livestreamed on YouTube from the Rochester Institute of Technology.
YEA!, founded in 2004 and operating in partnership with Chambers of Commerce
across the U.S, is open to students in grades 6-12. The program is a
rigorous 24-week curriculum where students conceive, plan, and launch
their own businesses. Classes are open to all students in the South Bay
and are held at Mira Costa High School in the evenings, taught by Rachel
Thomas and Program Manager Ro Schreiner.
Throughout the course,
student businesses heard from local business leaders Deann Chase, Sylvia
Gayed, Carla Ramirez, Dennis Jarvis, Sheila Miller-Nelson, Zack
Schwartz, and Erena Lugo, as well as many others. Each student business
is also paired with a local business mentor to guide them through the
business planning and development process.
This year’s Investors were community leaders from each of the sponsors of the program: Latrice McGlothin, Kinecta Federal Credit Union, David Lesser, Manhattan Beach Mayor Pro Tem, Lisa Hemmat, Manhattan Beach Rotary, and Jessica Vincent of Chevron. Manhattan Repro has also been a sponsor of the program since its onset in 2015.
Past Manhattan Beach winners have made a national impact. Last year Maia Rocha, a current senior at Mira Costa, earned national top six recognition for her productivity app Doing Done (DoingDone.fun) and is the second YEA! grad to receive a $50,000 scholarship from Southern California Edison.
In 2023, then-freshman Lila Mokhtari won first place nationally with her social impact soap business Maji (Majisoap.com), securing a cash prize and a $30,000 scholarship to Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT).
Founded at the University of Rochester, YEA! is a national nonprofit program that empowers young people to take their first steps in business ownership. The program has helped launch thousands of student-run businesses and is supported by the E. Philip Saunders College of Business at RIT, a major national sponsor.
More information about how to apply to, volunteer with, or support the Manhattan Beach chapter of YEA! can be found here.
