LEWISTON — Ayman Mohamed and Mahamed Sheikah dream of becoming restaurant moguls. But first, the Lewiston High School students have to get their food cart up and running.

Sahro Hassan, 17, dreams of designing a line of formal dresses for Muslim girls — something fashionable and trendy but more modest than today’s prom gowns. She already has six orders, but she needs supplies. And a mannequin would help.

At 15, Sam Delaware is a budding photographer who’s already shot professionally. He has to upgrade his equipment if he’s going to start his ultimate dream business: wedding photography in New York City. 

On Tuesday, those students and three other high-schoolers will get the chance to make their dreams comes true when they pitch their proposals to a panel of investors. If they do a good job, and if the investors like their plans, they could win the money they need to kick-start their businesses.

It will be the capstone of the Androscoggin County Chamber of Commerce’s Young Entrepreneurs Academy. 

“My ultimate dream is to be a company of my own,” Hassan said. “To be that kind of New York thing and (have) girls looking up to me. You don’t have to change who you are. You can be in fashion, still be who you are, but be in style and have confidence.”

The Young Entrepreneurs Academy is a national program sponsored by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Campaign for Free Enterprise. Middle- and high-schoolers meet once a week for 33 weeks with experts who teach them how to create, fund, advertise and run their own businesses. 

Although other chambers of commerce have offered the program in Maine, the Androscoggin County Chamber offered it for the first time this school year.

“It sounded like a cool idea,” said chamber President Chip Morrison, who served as the program’s main teacher.

The Androscoggin Chamber’s Young Entrepreneurs Academy began with 13 students from southern and central Maine. Every week, the students got business lessons from local experts, including how to create a Web presence, how to create a business plan and how to impress investors. Each student got a mentor. Each was asked to take steps toward starting a business, such as getting quotes for insurance. 

“They’re just doing it like any business would do it,” Morrison said.

The program proved too intense and time-consuming for some teenagers — even those who were already business-minded. 

“There’s no half-in in this. You’re either all-in or you’re not,” Morrison said. “We had one guy who would have been a huge success; he already had his own business and just wanted to improve it. But he made the basketball team.”

Ultimately, seven high-schoolers finished the program with six business ideas. 

Along with Mohamed, Sheikah, Hassan and Delaware, there is Zoe Oswald, who plans a gluten-free baked goods company; Colleen Clarke, who wants to start a low-cost-wedding planning business; and Gabrielle Mason, who hopes to sell her own line of cosmetics. 

“It’s a lot harder than I thought it would be,” Mason said. “It’s definitely a lot of dedication. I came in here thinking, ‘Oh, I’ll have my own business and all my friends will think I’m cool.'”

All seven students have finished business plans and many already have customers. Mohamed and Sheikah set up a free food cart a couple of weeks ago to see how their homemade sambusas — fried pastries filled with meat or vegetables — would fare. They had 100 customers and ran out of food.

“We’re going to succeed, from mobile vending to a bigger restaurant to a bigger company,” Sheikah said. 

But to get there, they’ll need $968 for a food cart and supplies. And they aren’t the only ones who need about $1,000 in start-up money.

So at 5 p.m. Tuesday at the Chamber’s headquarters on Lisbon Street in Lewiston, the students will pitch their plans to a panel of seven investors. Those investors will have $5,200 to distribute among the students.

If their presentation is good, and if the judges like what they hear, the students could get the money they’re asking for. And the winner will go on to the national Young Entrepreneurs Academy competition in New York.

Tuesday’s competition will be open to the public.

The students say they’re hoping to get funding for their fledgling businesses. But they also say they’ve already gotten something out of the program.

“Now I’m 18 and I have my own business,” Mason said. “Not a lot of people can say that.”

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