West Newsmagazine 12-13-23

20 I SCHOOLS I
By CATHY LENNY
December 13, 2023
WEST NEWSMAGAZINE
@WESTNEWSMAG
WESTNEWSMAGAZINE.COM
Progress 64 West honors tomorrow’s leaders with entrepreneurial scholarships
Four young women with big dreams were
celebrated on Nov. 22 as civic organization
Progress 64 West awards its P64 Entrepreneurial
Scholarships, administered by the
YouthBridge Community Foundation.
The scholarship program, which originally
was named to honor entrepreneur
Louis S. Sachs, has grown beyond the
I-64 corridor of western St. Louis and St.
Charles counties and now offers help to
foster the higher education goals of high
school seniors across the region.
This year, four scholarships of $5,000
each were awarded.
Nick Ioakimides, who works at Accenture
and is a past Louis S. Sachs scholarship
winner, introduced this year’s
recipients: Shayneisha Allen, of Parkway
Central; Allison Lam, of Parkway North;
Kamaria Crawford, of KIPP St. Louis
High; and Elizabeth Whaley, of Westminster
Christian Academy.
“There are some very impressive young
women this year,” Ioakimides noted.
Each applicant had to submit an executive
summary of a business plan that included a
description of the business concept; a market
analysis, including market need, competition
and profit strategy; an operations plan
Winners of the P64 Entrepreneurial Scholarship with sponsors of the award (from left): Mike Doster, of Doster, Nations, Ullom & Boyle
LLC; Allison Lam, Kamaria Crawford, Elizabeth Whaley and Shayneisha Allen; Rich Svindland, Mo American Water; (back row) Judy
Sindecuse, of Capital Innovators; Michael Staenberg, of TSG; Summer Richardson, of Mo American Water; and Brenda Tucker, of
Peoples National Bank.
(Rob Shirley Photography)
and sales and marketing strategies.
Allen won for her nonprofit bakery inspiration,
Shay’s Krazy Kakkes, which specializes
in gluten-free, health-conscious,
vegan baked goods for parties and events.
She said her business plan is two-fold.
First, give back to the community. Her
business would use its proceeds to help
children living in foster care.
“I was a child in foster care,” Allen said
of her motivation. “I try to do as much as I
can to support the cause because I know how
challenging it can be to find a forever family.
I am grateful to have found my forever family
… in my (first) foster care placement.”
Her second initiative is to create highquality,
good-tasting baked goods for those
who suffer from lactose intolerance, are
vegan, or must avoid gluten.
“There are not many around,” Allen said
of specialty bakeries, “so I wanted to be
the first African- American young woman
to make an impact like this.”
Her plans for the future are to attend college
and then law school to become a prosecuting
attorney, hopefully in New York or
California.
Lam won for her business concept,
RestorAsian, a nonprofit organization that
provides free website development and
services for Asian-owned businesses. She
said she was inspired by the effect the
COVID-19 pandemic had on her grandparents’
restaurant. There was a certain
amount of animosity toward Asians at the
time, and her grandparents are Vietnamese.
“I decided to make free websites for
See SCHOLARS, page 45
Live the life
you so richly
deserve.
The best of Assisted Living and
Memory Care in West St. Louis County
Please call Carrie at 636-778-4800 to schedule
a tour or visit TheGrandeAtChesterfield.com
Ask us how you can save up to $9,000 with our Spirit of the Season Savings
16300 Justus Post Rd, Chesterfield, MO 63017