Young Presidents\u2019 Organization<\/a>, the world\u2019s largest leadership community of chief executives.<\/p>\nThe organization describes itself as a \u201cglobal leadership community of chief executives driven by the belief that the world needs better leaders.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sidhu said the camp\u2019s goal was to challenge those from privileged backgrounds to solidify visions of the good that they can offer the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we\u2019re doing here is exposing them (to) the experiences of different entrepreneurs,\u201d Sidhu said. \u201cWe\u2019re talking about resilience, hard work, and never, ever giving up. The importance of dreaming big, being creative, being disciplined. All those are life skills, and usually you learn them all by the time you are 60 or 70 and the wisdom suddenly hits you. We wanted to give all those life experiences in a compressed way.\u201d<\/p>\n
The camp involved about 40 students from around the U.S. and the world, mostly age 15 to 17, including some from Europe, South America, and the Middle East.<\/p>\n
Tuition was $7,995, and covered housing, meals, programming, travel excursions and more.<\/p>\n
True to its name, the boot camp directed attendees through an intensive experience that pushed them to think critically about their goals, and develop the interpersonal skills, tactical savvy, and technical know-how needed to achieve them.<\/p>\n
Daily workshops emphasized subjects like how to maximize impact with AI, communications skills in the digital era, developing an entrepreneurial mindset, and maintaining mental wellbeing.<\/p>\n
The event featured numerous local executives who spoke and directed activities, such as Greg Header, namesake of Alvernia\u2019s Header School of Business; Brian Johnson, CEO of Mail Shark; and Barry Schlouch, president at Schlouch Inc., as well as Young Presidents\u2019 Organization representatives like Navilka Varma, clinical psychologist and managing director of YPO Pretoria.<\/p>\n
Sidhu\u2019s children, Sam Sidhu, president and CEO at Customers Bank, and Luvleen Sidhu, chair, CEO and founder of BM Technologies Inc., also spoke during the event, sharing perspectives on growing up and choosing a career path, among other topics.<\/p>\n
Sandy Solomon, founder and CEO of Sweet Street Desserts, Reading, spoke about her journey growing the global commercial bakery, and the strategies and rituals she developed to achieve success.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople love to say creativity is a gift, that people are just born with it,\u201d Solomon said. \u201cI don\u2019t believe that for one second. Creativity isn\u2019t solely a gift, it\u2019s a muscle. And like any muscle, you can build it, and you can develop rituals that help you carry that neutral, open-minded state that (fosters it).\u201d<\/p>\n
Solomon said her ritual includes habits like breathing exercises and Kundalini yoga to promote optimism and an open mind.<\/p>\n
\u201cSay yes to the scary thing and then figure out how to do it,\u201d Soloman said. \u201cIf you wait until you\u2019re ready, you\u2019ll be waiting your whole life. Ready is a myth \u2014 jump, and build your wings on the way down. On some level, that is the nature of an entrepreneur.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Sandy](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1783340532_356_REG-L-SidhuBootCamp845.jpg\")
Sandy Solmon, founder of Sweet Street Desserts in Reading, speaks during Jay Sidhu\u2019s entrepreneurial boot camp at Alvernia University on Thursday, June 25, 2026. (BILL UHRICH\/MEDIANEWS GROUP)<\/p>\n
Students also toured notable hubs of leadership in Philadelphia and New York City, such as University of Pennsylvania\u2019s Wharton School of Business, the U.S. Capitol Building, the United Nations headquarters, and Independence Hall.<\/p>\n
They met with congress and senatorial staff, a U.N. ambassador, and participated in the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange.<\/p>\n
Participants also visited local sites, such as Nolde Forest Sanctuary, where the lessons focused on sustainability.<\/p>\n
Sidhu said he\u2019s had extensive experience holding leadership boot camps for school districts and colleges in the Berks area and beyond, including events for underprivileged students.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve learned from those experiences and brought all that together here,\u201d Sidhu said. \u201cThe kids (at this camp) come from privileged families, but that doesn\u2019t mean you are a very satisfied or a successful human being\u2026 our objective was to try to create 40 leaders here that will have an impact.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alvernia University was an ideal partner for the camp, because of the university\u2019s commitment to education that nourishes the mind, body and spirit, said Alvernia President Dr. Glynis A. Fitzgerald.<\/p>\n
\u201cHere we can ensure that these students are going to leave with really great entrepreneurial skills, really great skills in AI, but also that ethical courage that we want our young people and all our leaders to have,\u201d Fitzgerald said.<\/p>\n
To that end, students were tasked with devising solutions to solving real-world problems that resonated with them.<\/p>\n
Jimena Maroto, a participant from Costa Rica, said she aimed to create a database to preserve fading elements of her country\u2019s language and culture.<\/p>\n
\u201cUsually, when people go to study aboard and leave our country, they start not using (certain) words anymore,\u201d Maroto, 15, said. \u201cThe language starts getting lost. Newer generations stop using it.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said her proposal was to create a community-based dictionary for Costa Rican slang.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes, these words that make me, me \u2014 don\u2019t translate to English,\u201d Maroto said. \u201cWhat I could do is show you on my phone the word that I\u2019m trying to find. What it means, where it\u2019s from, audio of a native person saying it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another student, Mia Capasso, 16, of New York City, said she and a team partner came up with an idea for an orally ingested medicine that would help people remove microplastics from their body.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think a passion of mine is helping other people and keeping people healthy is a big part of that,\u201d Capasso said. \u201cWe did some research and there\u2019s one patent similar to our idea, but the engineering is completely different and the materials we need are a lot cheaper, so we can make it accessible to more people.\u201d<\/p>\n
They said the boot camp has helped them map and envision their goals.<\/p>\n
\u201cJay and the speakers have helped so much,\u201d Capasso said. \u201cWith dreaming big. I really just want to grow this and help people around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
The program ended with a graduation ceremony in the New York Stock Exchange board room.<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1783340532_408_alvernia-university-customers-bank-new-york-stock-exchange-never-ever-ever-give-up-global-leadership.jpeg\")
The New York Stock Exchange welcomes Customers Bancorp Inc. and the Never Ever Ever Give Up Global Youth Leadership Boot Camp in collaboration with YPO and Alvernia University. Jay Sidhu, Customers Bancorp executive chair,\u00a0joined by Tara Dziedzic, NYSE Head of US Listings,\u00a0rings the closing\u00a0bell. (Courtesy of NYSE)
\nPhoto Credit: NYSE<\/p>\n
Sidhu said he\u2019s heard from many participants that the camp was among the top of their list of activities they\u2019ve participated in.<\/p>\n
\u201cYoungsters here have been to Yale camps, Harvard, Cambridge,\u201d Sidhu said. \u201cYou know what they said? Alvernia is in that company.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the camp sets itself apart by being a legitimate \u201cboot camp.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not a summer camp,\u201d Sidhu said. \u201c(Boot camps) get the marine corps ready to protect the county. We\u2019re getting leaders of the world ready to take on the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sidhu said he intends to bring the Never Ever, Ever Give Up camp back to Alvernia next year for another two-week round.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to make it even better,\u201d Sidhu said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Imparting a lifetime of leadership experiences to a cadre of international students in two weeks seems like a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":236603,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[349,60,182,28,736,128,130,129],"class_list":["post-236627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-berks-county","tag-business","tag-local-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-reading","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236627\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Jay](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1783340531_614_REG-L-SidhuBootCamp844.jpg\")
Jay Sidhu listens as Sandy Solmon, founder of Sweet Street Desserts in Reading, speaks during his entrepreneurial boot camp at Alvernia University on Thursday, June 25, 2026. (BILL UHRICH\/MEDIANEWS GROUP)<\/p>\n