Contributed By Steve Goldberg
Get ready to be dazzled. Meet eleven year old Amiya Alexander (photo above right foreground). She is Detroit’s youngest entrepreneur. The inspiration for her exciting business venture occurred when Amiya was 9. During a nighttime dream she imagined and then drew several sketches of her pink school bus with an outfitted dance studio.
Amiya’s mom Teberah Alexander, 30, a registered nurse who owns a home health care company, is her biggest supporter, though she wasn’t overjoyed when she first heard Amiya’s plan.
“It was 1 a.m.,” Teberah recalls, “and Amiya said, ‘Mommy, wake up. I’m going to need a pink bus.’ I was like, ‘Can you go back to bed?’ She said, ‘I have a business plan. I want to help you as a single mom, and I want to help kids stay healthy.’”
Much to her surprise on Christmas Day 2008, Amiya’s got her wish. Her mom skimped and saved and purchased a 1998 school bus, that she had painted pink and transformed into a mini dance studio based on Amiya’s sketches.
Amiya is now CEO and president of Amiya’s Dance Academy that aims to fight obesity by traveling throughout Detroit in a pink school bus with a dance studio directly inside.
Amiya’s home state of Michigan has the 10th highest national obesity rate (almost 30% of the population) and Amiya has created one of the more innovative approaches to help young people enjoy exercise and feeling good about themselves. One of the challenges of reducing childhood obesity particularly in inner city neighborhoods is providing safe places for young people to be physically active. Amiya’s Dance Bus- Fighting the Obesity Epidemic One Beat at a Time was just the ticket.
In additional to providing a safe place to exercise Amiya promises “You will have so much fun… you won’t even realize you are “working out”!
Amiya’s school bus driven by her great-uncle travels to schools, childcare centers, summer camps, churches and private parties in Detroit and its suburbs. Each week, she teaches dozens of students, ballet, tap, jazz, hip-hop and salsa. Based on her business success, Amiya has already been able to hire two other dance instructors to teach while she’s in school and to assist with birthday parties.
Last October, Amiya founded the nonprofit Rising Stars Dance with Me Program to fund scholarships for children who can’t afford lessons. Some day, she hopes to open a performing arts center in Detroit.
Amiya is motivated by her desire to attend Harvard Medical School and to become a doctor.
A parent of one of Amiya dance students summed it up best, “There are so many people who have a good idea, but don’t carry it out…Amiya got this idea at 10 and had the conviction and commitment to go for her dream. She’s a fabulous role model for my little girl.”
I would suggest that Amiya is a great model for all of us.
Check out the video clip below of Amiya’s story and her teaching a live dance class to her students:
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6525412n&tag=api
What dreams lie inside you that need to come out and make a difference in the lives of others?
