Albany businesswoman mentors start-ups and teens
ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) — Gina Torres wants to prepare Capital Region students for the workforce.
“The youth is part of our community, that's what get local is all about we're all about community and bringing this network, strong powerful network that supports our youth" said Torres.
The former police officer Torres is now the CEO of Get Local 518, a consulting business that helps Capital Region start-ups with everything from advertising and licensing to brand building and obtaining grants.
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This summer, Get Local 518 participated in the Summer Youth Employment Program. For Aniyah who will start 10th grade, learning from Torres makes all the difference.
“I am the type of person where I come from entrepreneurs and people who have their own businesses so I want to kind of come out as my own and start to get knowledge on my own of starting my own business and doing my own things and learning the ways to do it" Aniyah told us.
Torres wants the students to be open to an endless array of career possibilities.
“The reason that we do all this so that they can actually see that they can be an entrepreneur, they can be a business owner, they can be a CEO of a company they can work high in the state, there's no limits" said Torres.
Many teens would choose to spend their summer break chilling at home or traveling but for high school senior Richeylee, this course was something she couldn't pass up.
“You can go on summer vacation anytime…all the time, but opportunities such as this come once in a lifetime and you can really find something here that really changes the way you see things" she said.
The students' daily schedule reads like a modern day adult worker. The teens are broken down into teams and each group handles marketing and promotion for one of 518 locals clients. They even have tasks to do at home which Torres says is intended to mimic working from home.
“We all get on, hop on the video, to explain any tasks that we have give updates and kind of be there for each other on the virtual aspect because that's what a lot of things are moving to in the real world” Torres said.
Gina’s work impacted 15 year old sophomore Isaac in particular.
“It means a lot"" Isaac said. "It shows that she really cares and and we're all really lucky to just have her as our mentor and to have her guiding us as we develop into what we want to do in our own careers and in our own businesses” he added.
"It really means a lot to me" Gina said hearing Issac and the other student speaking so highly of her. "The fact that I'm impacting 16 17 and 18 year old's on a larger scale than even I could imagine".
SYEP Albany, Summer Youth Employment Program
If your teen is interested in participating in this program for next summer, have them select get local when they sign up for the Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP).