Best Buy Sidebar: Focus on Teens
Ramona Rosales
Of the $33.4 million that Best Buy Co. Inc. (BBY) gave away in fiscal 2009, nearly two-thirds went to K-12 education. What’s more, the vast majority of that money was earmarked for @15, a new social change program that the company says can make a huge difference in the lives of teenagers. “Teens have the ideas and creativity to help improve the world around us,” says Paula Prahl, Best Buy’s senior vice president of communications, public affairs and corporate responsibility. “They’re also avid users of personal and social technology. And they’re obviously important to Best Buy — they shop in our stores, and they’re our future employees.”
In 2008 the company launched the @15 Website (www.at15.com), a forum in which teenagers from 13 to 18 can share their views on the world and how to change it. By completing an IMO (In My Opinion) survey, answering the “Question of the Moment” or writing a blog, the 10,000 registered members can collect points to help direct $1 million that Best Buy puts toward one of four organizations. Last year, Best Buy says, 1,000 students each received a $1,500 scholarship through the @15 scholarship program based on academic records and community involvement or work experience. Predating the Website, the program has given away close to $9.5 million in scholarships since its inception in fiscal 2006.
Another highlight of @15 is the Best Buy @15 Teach Awards, created in 2003 to support K-12 schools in communities where the retailer does business. In 2009, Best Buy awarded $2 million to 460 schools that proved their willingness to use technology to teach students in interactive and engaging ways. Registered @15 members can nominate an eligible school to win a similar $1,500 Teach@15 Award.
Finally, the program includes the @15 Challenge, a contest that awards $10,000 each to 15 winning Youth Venture Teams of young social entrepreneurs. In 2008, brothers Kyle and Brady Baldwin, now 19 and 17, respectively, won for a program they called “My Own Book.” The teens, who visit classrooms to read and give out books to less fortunate children, also organize “reading buddy” programs at libraries and schools at which teenage volunteers, along with community heroes such as firefighters and police officers, serve as mentors and role models, making reading fun for the kids.
