Starting the IPOP Foundation was a dream I had for many years.  IPOP is an acronym for “In Pursuit of Perfection” which has been a personal mantra of mine for a very long time.  Long ago I came to realize that living a successful life isn’t about achieving perfection; rather it was about living life in pursuit of perfection.  Coming to recognize that helped me tremendously in my life and because of that I wanted to help other people recognize it too.  So when I got to a point in my life where I was financially able to, I launched the IPOP Foundation, a charity dedicated to helping entrepreneurs learn to excel by helping them develop their own talents and abilities. The Foundation focuses on the Promotion, Education, and Perpetuation of entrepreneurship as a pathway to self-reliance, self-confidence, and selfless giving in order to impact the world for the better.

Entrepreneurship has a very important meaning in my life.  Entrepreneurship was the path that allowed me to become self-reliant during my years as a single mother of two young children.  I saw for myself exactly what an entrepreneurship can help someone achieve and I wanted to educate others on the opportunities and possibilities that exist out there. I also felt that I learned many valuable lessons throughout my career and my goal was to give back by sharing these lessons with other aspiring and practicing entrepreneurs to help them along their journey.  Launching the foundation was the perfect way to achieve that.

This week I am super excited to be kicking off our next High School Entrepreneur competition.  We will be challenging High School students to come up with ideas for a new mobile app.  They will then write a short business plan and prepare to pitch their idea in front of a panel of judges that are also angel investors.  The winners of the competition will receive prizes and scholarships to college.   We begin our first mentoring session for the upcoming competition tomorrow.  I love working with the students.  I love seeing their eyes light up when they get excited about an idea and when they realize that they are capable of more than they ever realized. That is one of the best feelings ever.

If you want to learn more about the foundation you can go to www.ipop.org .  The big event for this next competition will be on March 13^th .  My husband and I will be giving $5,000 of scholarships away at the event, and some incredible companies have offered to donate prizes and additional scholarship money for the students competing as well.  If anyone out there wants to get involved by donating either prizes or scholarship money to be given away please email me directly at amy@amyreesanderson.com and let me know.  We welcome all the help we can get as we work to encourage our young people to get out there and change the world!

~Amy