The Schmidt College of Business is preparing for its second “Spanish Boot Camp for Entrepreneurs” to teach Spanish-speaking people how to open or improve their own business. The boot camp is open for students and community members.

The Adams Center for Entrepreneurship will begin the camp titled “Entrenamiento para Empezar una Empresa” — better known as Spanish Boot Camp — on May 17. 

The camp will run for eight weeks with meetings on the Boca Raton and Davie Campus on Tuesdays from 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., according to Jennifer Granger, coordinator for the Adams Center for Entrepreneurship. 

Kevin Cox, senior instructor and assistant director for the Adams Center for Entrepreneurship, began the boot camp almost a decade ago with the goal of teaching practical education for people to start a business. 

“Anyone can register for the boot camp. It’s always been pretty affordable and we’ve built it from there, based on my own experience, my own education and then working with hundreds of companies over the years,” said Cox. 

According to Cox, since the COVID-19 pandemic began, they have seen an increase in people starting their own businesses, most notably Hispanic women. 

“The whole idea was to expand this Boot Camp, then with the CARES Funding plus the data, it made sense to say ‘what if we just offered this for a totally different separate group of people?’” said Cox. 

The first Spanish boot camp at FAU took place in the Spring semester with around 15 students attending between two simultaneous classes. 

Yara Gonsalves works at eXp Realty as a realtor. She is part of the mentor program at the Adams Center, where students can seek advice and feedback about entrepreneurship competitions and new ventures. 

Gonsalves attended the Boot Camp for Entrepreneurs as a student before her time as an instructor during the first Spanish version, and will be instructing the upcoming camp on the Boca Raton campus in the College of Business in Phil Smith Hall’s (BU-86) room 102. 

Berioska Sosa is the founder and CEO of Royalty Care Med Spa, and has been featured in Boca Raton’s Shrimp Tank, where local business owners are interviewed on a weekly basis on how to make a business strive.

Sosa also attended the boot camp as a student before her time as an instructor during the spring. 

“It’s a great method to keep you accountable because when you work in a business, it is so easy to get a lot of things oversighted. Taking the class helped me to put some things into paper that I had on my mind,” said Sosa. “And it helped me realize so many things that I wanted and how to even set the right questions to ask in order to ensure that I’m definitely attracting the right kind of relationships.”

Sosa expressed that the camp is a good opportunity for people to learn from experienced business owners at an affordable price. 

Classes cost $300, which includes the book, or $250 if a person already has the book. Additionally, the camp offers limited scholarships that allow people to take the class at $100, including the book. 

“It’s an amazing deal because you are getting eight weeks with experts in entrepreneurship. In my class, and in the other class, we’ll have guests to give some perspective in business law, talk about financing, and some people to talk about marketing,” said Sosa. 

According to Sosa, the opportunity to do networking is another advantage of taking the camp. 

“Something that we did at the end of the eighth week was a celebration, like a networking celebration,” said Sosa. “At the end you get an award from FAU, which is an amazing university, and you get to meet people that can potentially be business partners, clients, or collaborators.”

Sosa will be instructing the upcoming Spanish camp on the Davie Campus in the Davie West’s (DW-BC90) room 110. 

Cox encourages anyone who is interested in business ventures, but might be unable to take traditional classes, to seek out the Adams Center for Entrepreneurship for resources, whether it is advice, mentors or help networking. 

“The Adams Center for Entrepreneurship [is] here [for you]. You can mail us, you can even come back and stop by now, we are there all day, almost every day,” said Cox. “We want to reach out to more students and more people in the community.”

For more information to register for the Spanish Boot Camp, visit here.

Ma. Emilia Santander is the Copy Desk Chief at the University Press. For information regarding this or other stories, you can reach her on Instagram @emilias_ed or email her at [email protected].