Celebrate Youth Entrepreneurship

Each spring University School hosts a free day-long event that brings together nearly 1,000 middle school and high school students. A nationally recognized young entrepreneur will present to students and ignite their inner entrepreneurial spirit.

Our 14th annual Celebrate Youth Entrepreneurship event took place on April 12, 2023. This year’s keynote speaker, Evan Delehanty from Peaceful Fruits, discussed his entrepreneurial journey and provided students with a framework on how they can build on their entrepreneurial mindset.

Our 2023 Featured Speaker, Evan Delehanty!

Evan Delahanty is the Founder and CEO of Peaceful Fruits, a social good snack startup that employs people with disabilities to make healthy, delicious, rainforest-friendly fruit snacks. Peaceful Fruits has been featured on NPR and ABC’s Shark Tank and is focused on scaling sales and production locally and nationally. Evan graduated from Walsh Jesuit High School (2003), then Cornell University (2007), before working in private industry in operations management. Prior to launching Peaceful Fruits, he served as a Community Economic Development Specialist for the U.S. Peace Corps in the Amazon interior of Suriname, South America. Evan Delahanty enjoys speaking about the entrepreneurial mindset, the art of the elevator pitch and how to raise capital.

 

Previous CYE Speakers:

CYE 2022 – Jahkil Jackson, Founder, Project I Am

Watch the keynote

CYE 2021 – Haile Thomas, Founder, CEO, HAPPY

Watch the keynote

CYE 2019 – Graham Veysey US ’00, Serial Entrepreneur, Founder of North Water Partners

CYE 2018 – Krystal Persaud, Senior Director of Product Design & Strategy, littleBits

CYE 2017 – Jon Kaplan US ’91, Head of Global Sales, Pinterest

Watch the keynote

CYE 2016 – Andrew Yang, Founder and CEO, Venture for America

Watch the keynote

CYE 2015 – Clint Greenleaf US ’93, Entrepreneur, Author, Personal Finance Expert

Watch the keynote

CYE 2014 – Shama Hyder, Author and Entrepreneur, Zen Marketing

Watch the keynote