SYLP at the University of Delaware
Event Information
Tuesday, October 15 | 9:30 AM – 1:15 PM
Breakout Sessions
We will offer four different breakout sessions at this event. These smaller sessions will be led by college professors, local business leaders, and University faculty. Students will attend two breakouts during the course of the day.
Fuel Your Future: The Power of Curiosity and Dreams
Explore how being "Connected to the World" can fuel your dreams and aspirations. You’ll be challenged to think for yourself, dig deeper into new ideas, and understand the world in a way that goes beyond the surface. By developing traits like intellectual curiosity, courage, and humility, you’ll gain the tools to navigate life’s challenges with confidence. This session invites you to ask big questions, face uncertainty with confidence, and approach the world with an open mind, all while focusing on your personal ambitions. Self-reflection and critical thinking will be key to uncovering how staying connected can lead to meaningful achievement.
Led by: Lauren Campbell and Nick Enos of The Siegfried Group
Unlock Your Creative Power: The Entrepreneur Within
Step into a dynamic session designed to help you unlock your creative potential and discover how your ideas can shape the future. Together, we’ll explore how creativity isn't just for artists or inventors—it's a tool for solving problems you care about and making the world better. You’ll learn how to identify issues that matter to you, think outside the box, and turn those ideas into real-world solutions. Whether it's in your school, community, or beyond, this session will show you how entrepreneurship is all about creating value and driving change. Get ready to think big, take risks, and unlock the power of innovation!
Led by: Maggie Nelson and Felicia Harrington of University of Delaware Horn Entrepreneurship
Incentives, The Profit Motive, and You
Personally engage with Professor Asarta to learn how to “see the unseen,” why uncertainty and risk are needed for entrepreneurship, and how profits draw a crowd, generating competition, lower prices, and innovation. Together, you will also do a deep dive into how people respond to incentives, how different resources contribute to productivity, and how production incentives are tied to the profit motive. We will conclude the session with some “Pearls of Knowledge,” examining what the richest people in the world have in common and what you could do to join them in the future! This presentation will include many relatable examples to help you make fully informed decisions about your future.
Led by: Professor Carlos J. Asarta, the Bank of America Chaired Professor of Business and James B. O’Neill Director of the Center for Economic Education and Entrepreneurship at the University of Delaware.
Confidence 101: Presenting Your Best Self
How confident are you; in your ideas, pursuits, or yourself? Explore this question and how a positive mindset, resilience and engagement can contribute to you being your best self. In Confidence 101 we will also introduce some basic leadership research and theory so explore how an entrepreneurs own vision of themself can affect the influence they have on themself, those around them and their world.
Led by: Professor Nat Measley, University of Delaware Horn Entrepreneurship
Speakers
Markevis Gideon
CEO of NERDiT Now
Markevis’ mission is to inspire people to find their passion and innovate their way to success. At the age of 12, a middle school teacher gave Markevis a computer and this event changed his life.
With this gift he quickly realized he had a passion for technology. Markevis then attended a tech-focused high school program, majored in computer science & accounting in college, and went on to live in China for five years.
Upon his return from China, Markevis was reminded of that single computer donation from years prior. He thought, “If one computer was able to change my life in such a way, what can 100 computer donations do per year?”
And that’s what he did. He started selling computers online to sustain donations. From here, NERDiT NOW was born. Today NERDiT NOW has donated over 3,000 computers to at-risk communities throughout Delaware. This is done mostly through, The NERDiT Foundation 501c3.
Markevis and NERDiT NOW have been featured on ABC’s Shark Tank, NBC News, The Washington Post, and more. Currently, he is focused on the continued growth of NERDiT NOW, starting the first I.T recycling company in the state of Delaware, all the while building an I.T. apprenticeship to help close the digital divide.
Markevis GideonRelated Event Recaps
See All Event Recaps
Testimonial
“This has become a staple for me to use to engage students to that I feel possess leadership qualities that aren’t out of their shells and for students to look outside their “neighborhood” to experience the perspectives of their peers.”
