BizAcademy Reflection May 2009
Brittny Hayes participated in the 2006 San Francisco BizAcademy and BizAcademy All Stars 2007. She shares her experience with the programs and what she has planned for the future.
My name is Brittny Hayes and I participated in San Francisco BizAcademy 2006 and San Francisco BizAcademy All Stars 2007. Even though coming into the Biz Academy program I knew nothing about networking, marketing or selling, I was very determined and willing to learn. The friendly environment made it much easier for me to learn and be comfortable working with everyone. As a result, I walked away from BizAcademy with all types of Microsoft experience, experience with networking, making leads and marketing.
In 2006, I was given the opportunity to be VP of Sales of my team, Sparking Life. I learned how to use salesforce.com, I learned how to network, I learned the keys to marketing and most importantly I learned how to be a successful entrepreneur. Even though my team didn’t end up winning that summer I walked away from BizAcademy with an experience like no other. Since I had such a great time in 2006, in 2007 I decided to participate in BizAcademy All Stars. The name of my team was E-Centered. This time around we had to create an eco-friendly service for sales force.com and sell the service. This task was proven to be a little more difficult than the first, but my team and I tackled the task head on. We got to network, market and create leads, then we had the opportunity to sell our service to sales force.com and this time my team came in 1st place. I was also voted Employee of the Week by my team members. I was really proud of myself and my team because we all worked really hard and it all paid off. BizAcademy really pulled me out of my shell and gave me a chance to prove to myself that if I applied myself to something, I could be successful.
As of right now I am a senior at East Union High School in Manteca, California. I will be graduating in a couple of weeks and I plan to start off college at San Joaquin Delta College for my first two years, then I will be transferring to University of the Pacific to major in Pharmacology. Many may feel that BizAcademy couldn’t have possibly helped me to prepare for the major that I have chosen to pursue, but in reality it has. Sure, I may not be selling plants or creating an eco-friendly service, but as a pharmacist, I will still be required to communicate with and meet different people, something like networking. BizAcademy has taught me to be an outgoing and responsible leader and I will take every piece of the experience with me where ever I go. I truly thank the salesforce.com Foundation for allowing me to take part in their program and for teaching me the fundamentals of entrepreneurship. Working with BizAcademy and salesforce.com is definitely the highlight of both summers in which I participated. I hope that the future BizAcademy participants enjoy the program and gain as much from it as I did.