15 Woodbridge Teens Brainstorm With Local Small Businesses

WOODBRIDGE, NJ — In these days of Instagram and social media marketing, what small-business owner wouldn't want advice from Generation Z?

That's the thinking from the Zuckerberg Institute, the CEO of which is Randi Zuckerberg (yes, sister to Facebook creator and CEO Mark Zuckerberg). The Zuckerberg Institute created what they call a "Post-Pandemic Take Force," which pairs small businesses with local high school students to come up with ideas to navigate the post-pandemic economy.

This spring, the Zuckerberg Institute chose two towns — Woodbridge, New Jersey and Greenburgh, New York — and asked if there were any high schoolers and small businesses there that would like to participate.

Fifteen high school students from Woodbridge said yes.

The businesses that volunteered to participate are Gem’s Limo, Strawberry Pub and Pizza, Olivia’s Catering and Dining, Knot Just Bagels and European School of Dance.

The students who volunteered are:

• Colonia High School: Jasleen Dhaliwal, Madison Ferreira, Brandon Ribeiro, and Muhammad Warraich
• John F. Kennedy Memorial High School: Himit Shah, Dhruv Patel, Krish B Patel and Anuj Patel
• Woodbridge High School: Shakeel Guerrier, Angela Montauban, Meaghan Motz, Michael Nycz, Nathaniel Elson, Isabel Reyes and Taylor Deliman.

"The town of Woodbridge reached out to Woodbridge's three high schools and the principals asked for students in business classes there who would like to participate," said Megan Kushpa, who works for the town of Woodbridge. "Fifteen Woodbridge students volunteered."

"The students will either do social media marketing for the businesses or help them create a website, things like that," said Kushpa.

“Anyone who says that high school students can’t do huge things in life, clearly haven’t met some of the top minds in tech and business,” said Zuckerberg, CEO of Zuckerberg Media.

It's an eight-week program where the students meet with the local small-business owners every Saturday, and discuss with them their business challenges, goals or what problems they've encountered in the past year of the coronavirus pandemic. Gov. Murphy first ordered many small businesses, such as restaurants and retail shops, to close last March and then only allowed them to reopen in a limited indoor capacity. Restaurants still have indoor capacity restrictions in place.

The Woodbridge students will also talk to successful business leaders in Zuckerberg Institute’s network in Silicon Valley to get their advice and ideas, and work directly with Randi Zuckerberg.

For more information on the program, please visit: https://www.zuckerberginstitut...

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