Young Entrepreneurs Across America offers valuable summer internship opportunity

“The only person stopping you from accomplishing the unthinkable is you,” said Miami University student Mat Harvey. “Just do it.”

For Harvey, that unthinkable accomplishment was managing his own painting business through an internship opportunity called Young Entrepreneurs Across America (YEAA). As he explained on the YEAA website, he “developed unmatched problem-solving skills and maturity” by working in YEAA’s Student Painters program. This internship is centered around the house-painting business and takes place over the summer. In just one year, Harvey generated over $60,000 in revenue, most of which was converted into profit for his employees as well as Harvey himself.

YEAA’s mission statement says that the company aims to “develop exceptional young people into successful entrepreneurs” by giving them the hands-on experience of managing their own small painting businesses. Open to all students over the age of 18, YEAA offers entrepreneurial paid internships as painters, marketers and managers.

“Almost anybody could do our business, but most most college students couldn’t,” said YEAA regional Vice President Josh Drushel. “What I mean by that is it’s not necessarily about how smart a manager is– we chose the painting industry to do this because it is something that’s pretty easily learned. You really just have to care. What it takes for somebody to be successful in our company is to be very self-motivated, very driven. Somebody that has a lot of self-accountability.”

Drushel has been a part of YEAA for eight years, beginning as a branch manager during his junior year at the Ohio State University. He now oversees the Ohio-Ky. division, as well as the Pittsburgh area, which has over 70 separate YEAA student-managed businesses. He explained that his job responsibilities change every 3-4 months. From August until January, he visits college campuses to provide students with information and conduct interviews. Then, from January until May, he trains the managers in aspects such as marketing, conducting interviews for employees and generating estimates. Finally, during the summer, he helps to educate the painters to ensure quality service.

“[I] really just fell in love with what [YEAA] is, what it represents, the people that we hire, and working with college students and giving them the chance to really go out and shine,” he said.

One of Drushel’s recent hirees was Mark Finkelstein, a Solon graduate and an OSU freshman. Finkelstein is double-majoring in biology and marketing, and hopes to run his own orthodontic practice in the future.

“I’ve always been interested in business, and I wanted to get some experience before I actually open up my own dental practice, so I thought [YEAA] would be a great hands-on way to gain experience and then learn, network, and also to make money,” he said.

Finkelstein is currently looking for marketers to work for his business, and will be looking to hire painters in the summer. He explained that not only would these students gain experience that would look great on a resume, he will pay them $10.50 per hour, untaxed, which is $2 more than the company standard. On top of that, he will raise their salaries when they get commissions.

“I’m not going to hire average people,” Finkelstein said. “I don’t want to be average, so I’m going to hold [my employees] to a higher standard, and that’s why I’m paying them more.”

Drushel agreed with Finkelstein’s assessment of the rigors of working for YEAA. In the Solon branch, however, Finkelstein wants to make sure his workers still have time for school, so his marketers and painters will work an average of 5-10 hours per week.

“It’s not an easy job by any means,” Drushel said. “But it is a very fun company to work for.”

Although the painting job involves manual labor, Drushel feels that the benefits outweighed the cost. When he partook in the job interview process after working as a Student Painter, he was offered many opportunities that his friends and competitors were denied. The reason? His real-world experience through YEAA set him apart from the crowd.

Finkelstein hopes that his managerial position will afford him similar benefits.

“I think the experience I’ll gain from this is going to be tremendous, just because it’s such a real hands-on opportunity to be able to market with people and to interact with the staff,” he said. “It will ultimately help me to be a leader and a better businessman. I’ll know how to talk to people, what people are looking for, how to approach to them, how to motivate people as well as…make money at the same time. This opportunity can apply to future endeavors, whether in dental school or just something to talk about. These are skills [one] need[s] to be successful anywhere.”

Finkelstein has already hired a few students from other local schools, but he wants to employ Solon students because they know the area well.

“Solon kids are intelligent kids, so I have faith,” he said.

Finkelstein will conduct interviews with interested students and provide them with extensive training. Additionally, if hardworking students would like to eventually advance to a managerial position at YEAA, he will put in a good word with the regional Vice President; namely, Drushel.

Drushel hopes that the company will continue to grow in the future because, while it is rapidly expanding, it is nowhere near its full capacity. However, he stressed that hiring the right people was of greater importance than hiring more people.

“The goal is to continue to help growing it, bit by bit, but we’ve got a long ways to go,” he said. “If you want to work around a lot of other college students or future college students, [YEAA]’s definitely a really cool opportunity to do that.”

Interested students can contact Finkelstein at [email protected] for further information about applying.