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11-Year-Old Jessup Student Pitches to Warren Buffett

The Howard County student is in Omaha, Neb. as a finalist for Warren Buffett's Secret Millionaires Club's "Learn and Earn, Grow Your Own" contest.

Krissa Hillman is giving the public an enticing reason to buy one of her cupcakes.

The 11-year-old student at Bollman Bridge Elementary in Jessup has crafted a business idea to raise money for local literacy initiatives. Hillman started Cupcakes for Literacy, a business that bakes and sells cupcakes -- from chocolate, vanilla, red velvet and mint -- to collect revenues for programs or entities devoted to teaching children how to read.

Her first cupcake offering helped raise $258 for her school’s library.

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The idea has caught the idea of business mogul Warren Buffett, who selected Hillman as a finalist for his Secret Millionaires Club’s “Learn and Earn, Grow Your Own” challenge for kids aged 7 to 16.

More than 4,000 students around the country submitted ideas to this contest. Hillman will present her idea to Buffett and a panel of successful entrepreneurs in Omaha, Neb. on Monday. Winners will receive $5,000 to help get their businesses off the ground.

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“I’m so excited that I’m shaking kind of,” Hillman said Friday, May 17. She was practicing her pitch to Maryland entrepreneurs at the Maryland Center for Entrepreneurship in Columbia.

“Not everyone gets a chance to do this ... There were so many great ideas. The fact he picked mine touches my heart.”

Hillman said she was drawn to books at an early age. Her mother, Sabrina Wilson, would find books scattered throughout her bedroom when she was just 5-years-old. This prompted Wilson to record videos of her young daughter reading, which she would upload online for an audience. The videos became known as “Storytime With Krissa.”

Baking cupcakes in the name of literacy is new for Hillman; she wanted to help those in the Howard County community share the same reading experiences she’s been able to.

Hillman practiced her presentation in front of three entrepreneurs that are on the board of directors at the Maryland Center for Entrepreneurship. Each board member offered feedback to prepare the up-and-coming entrepreneur for her meeting with Buffett.

Michael Binko, a co-chair at Startup Maryland, as well as the President and CEO of kloudtrak, was impressed with Hillman’s idea to tie music education with literacy, based on a conversation the young student had with a music teacher.

“I love the fact you added the music side of the equation to the reading literacy,” Binko told Hillman. “In the entrepreneurial world we call that a discovery pivot.”

Howard County Executive Ken Ulman was also on hand to congratulate Hillman on her success, and read a proclamation to declare June 17, 2013 “Cupcakes for Literacy Day” in Howard County.

Whether Hillman comes home from Omaha a winner or not, the Maryland Center for Entrepreneurship will continue to work with her to further her business idea. In doing so, Hillman said helping her community will remain a top priority.

“Giving back to society is one of the things a business, if it wants to succeeds, needs,” Hillman said. “If people know you’re doing it for them, they’ll give more and more and more. If you’re doing it for yourself, they won’t want to put money in to help you out.”

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