By Steven Gordon, Lemonade Day National President

An exciting and historic day is fast approaching as our staff, board members, sponsors, City Champions and City Directors, guest speakers, volunteers, elected officials, business owners, and other supporters gear up for the 2nd Annual Briefing on “Business Challenges and Youth Entrepreneurship Opportunities.”  This briefing, which is being co-hosted by Gallup and our rapidly-growing Lemonade Day national youth entrepreneurship non-profit organization, will be held on Thursday, Jan. 17, from 8:30 a.m. to 2:15 p.m. EST at Gallup World Headquarters, 901 F Street, NW, Washington, D.C. 20004.

With extra special assistance from Joe Daly and Justin Lall of the highly revered Gallup organization, I am honored to report that the United States Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos will participate in a “fireside chat” interview at 10 a.m. EST on Thursday, Jan. 17, as part of this event.

Admission to the event is complimentary and includes meals and coffee breaks. Elected officials, leaders of youth organizations, educators, students, business owners and executives, media representatives and others who support youth entrepreneurship are invited to attend. Reservations for all attendees, including media with credentials, are requested. For more information and to register, please see LEMONADE DAY IN THE NEWS.

Joe Daly, a Gallup partner and member of the board of directors of Lemonade Day, will conduct the “Question and Answer” style interview with Secretary DeVos as a key component of this day-long event.  Organized in a “think tank” format, the event will include a series of presentations and breakout discussions focused on igniting the sparks of entrepreneurship in young kids today that will influence them to start businesses and create jobs of tomorrow.

Lemonade Day and Gallup leaders are extremely honored that Secretary DeVos has agreed to join us for this event. We are looking forward to hearing her insights regarding the U.S. education system and ways that we adults can equip kids to be meaningful contributors to our nation and to society as a whole.

We are also thrilled to welcome other featured speakers who include Jim Clifton, Chairman and CEO of Gallup; Dr. Ronald Beghetto, PhD, Professor of Educational Psychology and Director of the University of Connecticut’s Innovation House; Megan Hernandez, Senior Brand Manager of Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers® (a national Lemonade Day sponsor), Amanda Roman, Chief Strategy Officer of Conscious Capitalism, Inc.; Karen Kerrigan, President and CEO of Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council;  Charlie Hamilton, Chairman of Lemonade Day’s national board of directors; Luis Fortuño, former Governor of Puerto Rico; and Hailey Hertzman and Katie Vonder Haar, who founded Ooh La Lemon online store at age 12 based on their positive Lemonade Day experiences.

To learn more about our agenda, speakers and breakout discussion leaders for the Jan. 17 briefing, please visit https://www.lemonadeday.org/usc/events.

I encourage you to read more about Secretary DeVos and to share information about Lemonade Day and our event this week. As always, I value and appreciate your comments, suggestions and feedback. Please email me any time at steven@lemonadeday.org and I will respond as soon as I can.

Please click on this link to learn more about Secretary Betsy DeVos.