Rock Your Block - Creating Tomorrow's Business Rockstars

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Sarah Young
Rock Your Block - Creating Tomorrow's Business Rockstars
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Rock Your Block - Creating Tomorrow's Business Rockstars
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Rock Your Block is a Facebook and mobile location-based application that provides an efficient way for youth to find neighborhood jobs, part-time work and internship opportunities within their community. The application tailors an easy-to-use and safe interface for teens to build a dynamic virtual resume, browse job listings in their network, and announce their candidacy for employment. Leveraging parents’, sponsors’, and teens' existing social graph, Rock Your Block allows users to filter posts by types of jobs in their area (e.g. dog walking, babysitting, lawn care, etc.). Each teen account is activated by an adult or corporate sponsor that agrees to support the teen in his or her entrepreneurial endeavors. As teens gain work experience, their Rock Your Block resume grows, showing: jobs completed, achievements and certifications earned, and recommendations from employers. Game-play mechanics are also incorporated into Rock Your Block. Teens earn stars and can “level-up” in status by achieving different types of experience, completing specific activities, and referring their friends. Recommendation and referral features help teens learn the value of professionalism and the importance of building credibility and reputation. By using Rock Your Block, teens are given the opportunity to develop skills necessary to become independent, self-sufficient adults: searching for work, building a resume, handling job interviews, and developing good time and money management. We want to bring Rock Your Block to a national scale so neighborhoods across the US can build stronger communities by focusing on youth development. For more information, visit www.rockyourblock.com
From an early age, I have always had entrepreneurial ambitions. As a teenager, I worked just about any odd job and part-time job you can name: from dog walking to babysitting to lawn care, I had done it all. But it was never really easy to find these “clients” that would pay me to scoop the litter box and bring in the mail. My experience as a teen led to my inspiration of creating a web-based application that would offer easy access for teens looking to find work in a safe and secure way. As I grew up through the evolution of the Internet and watched web services like LinkedIn and Monster.com appeared on the scene for adults and professionals, it became very clear that there is an untapped market of teenagers that love to make money, (and who spend a lot of time online!) I am passionate about entrepreneurship, technology, and helping youth. My experience in the technology industry includes specialization in SaaS applications, M2M solutions, and marketing and channel management for technology products and services. I graduated from the University of Minnesota – Carlson School of Management with degrees in Marketing and Coaching. I continue to follow my passion for working with youth as a junior high and high school track and field coach, specializing in pole vault. With Rock Your Block, I am able to extend my mission to empower and help youth on a much larger scale.