NNI NATIVE AMERICAN YOUTH

ENTREPRENEUR - JESIKA GARRETT

KNOWS AUTO-DETAILING!

Each summer the Native Nations Institute for Leadership, Management, and Policy (NNI) holds its Native American Youth Entrepreneur Camp. Twenty or so high school students from Native nations around the United States – and in some years, Canada as well – come to Tucson for a week of hands-on education in entrepreneurship.

Under the close eye of NNI executive director Joan Timeche (who has an MBA and has long advised tribal and individual entrepreneurs in Arizona and elsewhere) and her colleagues, they hear from successful Native American entrepreneurs, learn some of what it takes to run a business, generate business ideas of their own, and produce detailed business plans.

The camp ends with a Business Plan Showcase. This is a competition, judged by a panel of entrepreneurs and educators, among the various business plans the students have developed. The winners receive modest cash awards.

One of the speakers at this past summer's 13th annual Camp was a young woman named Jesika Garrett. Jesika is a citizen of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, and she was a participant, as a high school student, in the 2008 Entrepreneur Camp in Tucson. At the 2008 Business Plan Showcase, Jesika took third place with a business plan for an auto-detailing business.

Jesika returned home from the Camp in Tucson and, encouraged by friends and family, decided to start "Detail Express," the business she had imagined. The business quickly became profitable, and in December 2008, she entered the Lakota Nation Invitational Business Plan Competition. She won the competition and received a plaque, a star quilt, a $1,000 scholarship, and recognition as a "Wavemaker" on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation.

There was more to come. Jesika entered her business in the annual South Dakota Governor's Giant Visions Business Competition, and in April of 2009, "Detail Express" took third place in the student category, winning another $1,000 prize.

All of which made Jesika a star attraction at the 2009 Entrepreneur Camp in Tucson, where she told her story. As Joan Timeche said, "It was wonderful to have an alum from last year’s camp come to this year's camp to speak. She was living proof for our students that entrepreneurship works. We plan to take her up on her offer to assist in teaching at the 2010 Entrepreneur Camp!"

As for Jesika Garrett, she is now in college and plans eventually to pursue a career in medicine. In the meanwhile, Detail Express is paying the bills and teaching her organizational, business, and leadership skills.

Jesika Garrett