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Gen Y entrepreneurs balancing profits with volunteerism

March 9, 2011 by

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AJ Thomas, the March Y Gen Entrepreneur, is a San Jose, Calif.-based founder of Infuse Entrepreneurship, a nonprofit program that brings opportunities to inner-city schools showing students that possibilities are endless in pursuit of their own ideas to make the world a better place.

AJ joins Keeping Up with Gen Y to talk about how adversity and failure are often the best teachers as Gen Y moves from startup to success. She also discusses how young entrepreneurs are effectively balancing the need to make a profit with the desire to give back to their communities.

More about AJ Thomas
AJ Thomas is a quintessential Generation Y employee of various Fortune 500 firms and start-up ventures with the goal to operationalize, evangelize and implement social entrepreneurship programs in inner-city communities.

At age 22, she founded a consulting firm offering unique expertise that blended successful entrepreneurial experience, academic/legal insight and practical business analysis to Gen Y and inner-city youth in the Silicon Valley. This venture led to consulting opportunities, including for Google’s Innovation Strategy teams and several high-tech firms.

Three years later, AJ is founder of Infuse Entrepreneurship, a nonprofit program that brings opportunities to inner-city schools showing students that possibilities are endless in pursuit of their own ideas to make the world a better place.

A graduate of San José State University, AJ also is a Stanford University Certified Project Manager who has worked in the Human Resources field in the Silicon Valley supporting various global HR operations and international teams. Currently, she works at Infinera Corporation, a high-tech IP company located in Sunnyvale, California.

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About Tamara Bell

Tamara Bell is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Y Gen Out Loud, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that provides a platform for Generation Yto discuss national politics and public policy issues.

Tamara began her journalism career as a staff reporter for the Dallas Times Herald. A few years later, she moved to York, Pa., as a political reporter for the York Dispatch, covering local, state, and national government as well as writing investigative stories for the mid-sized daily newspaper.

A Texas girl at heart, Tamara returned to Dallas a year later to work as press relations director for the re-election campaign of U.S. Rep. John Bryant. The next year, she moved to Austin and the Texas Legislature, where she stayed for 15 years. While at the Legislature, Tamara worked for Democratic House members as Chief-of-Staff and Press Secretary, and as a Senior Policy Analyst for the Senate State Affairs Committee chaired by a Republicansenator.

In 1996, Tamara became co-owner of a political newsletter covering state issues and elections. As Editor-in-Chief, Tamara helped shape the weekly publication into a must-read for state officials, legislative aides, and lobbyists. More recently, Tamara wrote a regular column analyzing coverage by the Texas Capitol Press Corps for an online political publication. She also works as a lecturer in the Advertising Department at The University of Texasat Austin.

Tamara has also been a judge for the 2010 Bright Ideas Award given by the Texas Daily Newspaper Association, served as a panelist at the Society of Professional Journalists 2010 Region 8 Conference where the theme was How to Save Journalism, and has been a guest lecture for the Advertising Department’s Internship course, speaking about the jobs outlook for graduating seniors.

Tamara earned her M.A. and Ph.D. in Journalism from The University of Texas at Austin, and her B.A. in Journalism from Texas A&M University. She resides in Austin with her son, Jackson.

Tamara Bell is also the Host of Keeping Up with Gen Y on WomensRadio. Keeping Up with Gen Y offers discussions, interviews, and commentary about important issues of the day from the perspective of Generation Y (18-to 30-years-old). Aimed at all generations interested in learning about and inspiring young people, this show features professionals, experts, researchers, and members of Gen Y who share insights and experiences about the topics on the minds of today’s young adults.