The 5th Annual ConNEXTions Entrepreneurship Panel Event will provide resources and advice from people of color who own businesses in Madison on Saturday, Nov. 13, 10 a.m.-noon.
ConNEXTions is a nonprofit organization working to guide underrepresented young adults from the Madison community to achieve their financial, educational and career goals, while providing mentoring, networking and professional development. Saran Ouk is the founder and CEO of ConNEXTions, and understands the importance of giving back to the community and the real impact of non-profit organizing.
“I’m a refugee. I was born in a refugee camp in Thailand. And it was a nonprofit organization that supported our family or sponsored our family to come to the U.S.,” Ouk told Madison365. “And then when we moved to Madison, there were charity organizations that gave us food and clothes. They helped my parents learn to speak English. We were always on the nonprofit receiving and Madison has a full abundance of great organizations like that. I’ve always been very grateful. But I wanted to give back.”
ConNEXTions provides many free resources to young adults ages 18-29 in the Madison community, including free one-on-one financial coaching to help eliminate financial burdens. They also help people create an individualized career plan to achieve their goals. ConNEXTions also provides free workshops on personal and professional development including self-branding and confidence-building and interviewing and resume writing.
“We’re celebrating our five-year connections anniversary,” said Ouk. “We have five, including myself, entrepreneurs that will be speaking. And then we also bring in organizations throughout Madison that support entrepreneurs. There’s the Latino Chamber of Commerce that’ll come in and speak about their organization. There’s WWBIC, which is the Wisconsin Women’s Business Initiative Corporation. And then there’s Gener8tor. There’s Upstart. There’s the Small Business Development Center.
“All those organizations will be there as well to talk about their programming and how they’re supporting entrepreneurs,” Ouk added. “So not just a panel of entrepreneurs, but then resources for entrepreneurs as well. And they’ll be able to get to hear about these programs, and then also get a chance to network with other folks as well.”
Ouk understands the importance of financial literacy, which she learned during her time working at a credit union. She and the people who helped her create ConNEXTions founded the organization to help end the cycle of poverty in their communities. That is the main reason why the organization provide these resources to the community for free. They want everyone to have access to this knowledge and use it to help better their understanding of finances and career planning.
“We work with people who are under-represented, and we know sometimes a lot of programs and events charge a fee,” said Ouk. “And that can be a barrier for a lot of folks. Our ConNEXTions program is free itself. We just remained consistent and wanted to have a free event. Of course, we’ll accept donations. We’re not going to say no to that. But this event is for the community and then we know that sometimes having a fee is a barrier.
“We just wanted everyone to get this information. And it’s via Zoom now,” she added. “It might even be harder because some people don’t have an Internet connection. That’s a barrier. To add a fee on top of that, I don’t think that’s equitable.”
To donate to ConNEXTions, click here. To RSVP for the event, click here. Once you register via EventBrite, you will receive a Zoom link to the event. For any other questions or inquiries, contact Saran Ouk: [email protected].
