2008 Alumni Profile - Winton Anderson

Good Afternoon Ladies and Gentlemen,

About 5 years ago, I stood on a stage similar to this one with my business partners Mario and Tyrone to deliver a plan that we felt would shake up the crowd and turn many heads. And today, I am in awe of the plans I have seen. Allow me to give a little bit of my history with BUILD. As a freshman I attended East Palo Alto High School where I became acquainted with this wonderful program. The teacher, Ajuah Helton, taught us many things from common sense to COGS Analysis. Of course at that age, some understood COGS, while the common sense thing soon followed. After the year in the classroom, we then learned that putting a business plan together was anything but a joke. Our mentors, Josh and Jean, did their very best to help us with both the business plan and each other.

Our plan ended up being a business that would service customers throughout the community and the surrounding areas by doing everyday tasks that they could not find the time to do on their own. We were the middle man. Our first customer was Suzanne, BUILD’s CEO and Founder. After winning the Business Plan Competition, we had the funds we needed to make “Home-Aid Referrals” happen. This was simply the business aspect of BUILD. And although today you students are competing for the same thing, make sure you read between the lines. Between the lines, you find a home away from home and a group of people who serve as your family to encourage you whenever you feel as though you cannot go on. E1 students, everyone you have started with will not finish with you. How many people dropped off along the way with me? The answer is quite a few. But remember, as long as you stick with it, it will pay off. Around this time next year, I will be graduating from the Louisiana State University with a Bachelors of Arts in Communication Studies and a minor Business Administration.

In BUILD, you are developing friendships, mentors, lifelong connections, potential job offers, recommendation letters, scholarships, and many more opportunities. I ask that when you feel stagnate, as though your business isn’t going anywhere, remember this. Because a woman named Suzanne McKechnie Klahr read in between the lines of a community filled with negative stereotypes, BUILD was established. Because a group of people who in the beginning were qualified to get paid much more saw the same thing she saw, a staff was developed. Because of that staff, this Oakland branch of BUILD exists. And because this branch exists, a few businesses will be added to the city. These businesses will employ people who also have dreams and will do great things. This is what we call having a vision. And where there is a vision, there is life. Continue to let the heart beat of your dream race and it will prove successful in then end.