Second cohort graduates from DeKalb’s Breakthrough Community Business Academy

DeKALB – On Monday night, the latest cohort out of Breakthrough Community Business Academy took to First United Methodist Church in DeKalb for its graduation ceremony.

Among those recognized during the program were 16 graduates.

DeKalb resident N’jema McIntyre said she’s glad she signed up to take part in Breakthrough Community Business Academy’s spring cohort. She runs her own business called All Purpose Cakes and Desserts.

“It was very informative,” McIntyre said. “We had a couple simulations...A lot of fun, but made you think a lot about where your business wanted to go.”

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Charles Earvin walked in a graduation ceremony held Monday, June 2, 2025, at First United Methodist Church in DeKalb. He received a diploma for his participation in Breakthrough Community Business Academy's spring 2025 cohort. (Megann Horstead)

Breakthrough Community Business Academy is a 12-week course designed to help DeKalb area entrepreneurs gain skills necessary to navigate the business world.

On Monday, the program graduated its second cohort of students.

Sycamore resident Caprisha Williams said she felt the Breakthrough Community Business Academy has had a lot of value for her.

She runs Strong One, an e-commerce apparel website that carries an array of novelty items.

“It definitely wasn’t easy,” Williams said. “One of the assignments was three hours. Three hours? I was like, ‘Ok?’”

The spring cohort originally began with 18 participants, project leaders said. The fall cohort began with 10 participants, with nine graduating at the program’s end.

DeKalb resident April Garner was manning a booth after the graduation ceremony for her business, Dope Designs. She handles clients’ custom design needs, whether it be T-shirts, keychains, phone cases and more.

Garner said being part of the Breakthrough Community Business Academy has meant fine-tuning her practices.

“Because you get to a certain point, even though you may be a registered as a business, if you don’t turn a profit after a certain amount of time, they call it a hobby,” Garner said. “This was very instrumental in helping me understand that.”

Opportunity DeKalb executive director Chad Glover said he’s proud of how the latest cohort went overall.

“It was a really talented group, diverse group in terms of the types of businesses, a really committed group, a group that really supported one another and in a lot of really valuable ways in addition to trying to develop their own businesses,” Glover said.