Teaching business 101

When Julie Nessen runs the show, no one gets fired.

Nessen, cofounder of Young Entrepreneurs Alliance, has spent nearly a decade teaching teens how to run a business -- drawing up marketing plans, balancing books, and sealing deals.

Since 2002, she has run an incubator for entrepreneurs at Assabet Valley Regional Technical High School in Marlborough that counts New Balance among its clients.

''So much of the battle with these kids is that they feel on the outside of the business world, that they'll never be accepted, and that they're seen as punks," Nessen said.

She and other staff members created a graphic design firm called Digitize. The class chooses a company it wants to pitch to, and then students produce designs, create a marketing plan, figure costs, and prepare and implement a client presentation.

Jessie Blaser of Northborough, now a freshman at Fitchburg State College, was involved with Nessen's program last year as it was launching Digitize.

''We went out to lunch to learn how to eat properly, how to dress for business meetings, how to act during a business meeting, how to shake hands properly, and to look someone in the eye," Blaser said.

Digitize designed the holiday card that New Balance sent to some 4,000 associates around the world last year.

''They won this account," Nessen said of her students. ''This was not a favor. They bid against real companies."

The students worked on their designs for a month, then spent a week practicing their presentation. ''The bidding process gives the kids experience with big executives," Blaser said.

''It's hard to decide where you want to be professionally at age 16," said Breighana Seighigian of Marlborough. ''Getting a lot of the experience right now -- being with real clients and having real sit-downs with them -- is an amazing experience."

Nessen, who lives in Concord, cofounded Young Entrepreneurs Alliance with her father, Robert L. Nessen, a lawyer and investment banker who lives in Watertown.

''He wanted to work with [underprivileged] teens, particularly in the prison system, on business math," she said of her father. ''He said if they have math, it's a universal language."

Before joining the Assabet program, Julie Nessen ran Maynard All-Purpose, a landscape/handyman business in Maynard, with teenagers referred from schools and group homes.

Young Entrepreneurs Alliance also runs a high-tech document-imaging business at Madison Park Vocational High School in Roxbury and a similar business at Horace Mann School for the Deaf in Allston. More programs are in the works, including one for college-bound students. The nonprofit relies on donations from foundations, corporations, and individuals.

''I've learned how to speak my mind and actually talk to people," said Blaser of her experience with the alliance. ''I used to be very, very scared to talk to people; I'd sit there and sweat and be really nervous. Julie would say, 'Don't worry -- they're people like you . . . be yourself . . . don't go overboard and don't slouch; be proper, but speak your mind.' "

SLEEP DOCTOR -- When patients meet with Dr. Lawrence Epstein, they hope the conversation will put them to sleep.

Epstein, 49, is board-certified in internal medicine, treating pulmonary disease, and critical care, but it is the newly recognized subspecialty of sleep medicine that gets him out of bed in the morning.

Epstein is president of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, which played a key role in establishing an accredited training program in sleep medicine. ''If you now want to be a sleep clinician, you have to do a fellowship just as a cardiologist or pulmonologist does," he said.

Epstein is also the regional medical director for Sleep HealthCenters. His office is in Newton, where he sees patients suffering from narcolepsy, sleep apnea, insomnia, and parasomnias, including sleepwalking and sleep eating.

''One of the things that I enjoy about sleep medicine is that I think it's one of the few branches of medicine that I like to call 'happy medicine,' like obstetrics," he said. ''When I was taking care of patients with pulmonary disorders, they had cancer or emphysema -- you could help them, but not dramatically reverse their condition. With sleep medicine, sometimes you can dramatically change a person's life so they're incredibly happy."

Epstein recalls one patient who came in with restless legs syndrome, a neurological problem characterized by an uncontrollable urge to move that makes it nearly impossible to drift off to sleep.

''They get tired all the time; they're uncomfortable. It's difficult to go to a movie or even sit on an airplane," he said of those with the syndrome. ''I started a patient on medication, and the next time I saw him, he said, 'You've changed my life.' "

Epstein has had the same experience with patients who have sleep apnea, a disorder characterized by cessation of breathing during sleep. ''Patients are so tired that they can't work; they're sleeping 9 or 10 hours and are still [exhausted] all day long. After treatment, they're awake, alert, have energy, can exercise, and say they feel they have a whole new lease on life."

Epstein says he mostly sees people in their 30s to 50s, though he sees pockets of other age groups, depending on the disorder. For example, narcolepsy -- a continuous feeling of sleepiness -- often first occurs when people are in their 20s.

Epstein said sleep problems tend to creep up in middle age. ''As you get older, it takes longer to fall asleep and sleep is less continuous with more awakenings," he said. ''The amount of time spent in the different stages of sleep also changes with less time spent in slow-wave sleep, the most restorative sleep stage."

As people age, they may need slightly less sleep, but it becomes harder to obtain it in a continuous nighttime block.

Epstein admits that some disorders are difficult to diagnose, such as sleep eating. ''It's the same sort of thing as sleepwalking, in which you do some sort of behavior during sleep but have no recollection the following day," he said.

Several young women have complained to him of feeling bloated in the morning and then discovering food strewn all over the kitchen. Not surprisingly, they also report daytime sleepiness and weight gain despite dieting and exercising.

''The food they eat is very strange: peanut butter on fish or some combination that they'd never [otherwise] eat," he said.

Epstein said treatment usually combines therapy with medication.

Epstein said his personal sleep problems generally arise when he's under stress.

''One time I remember was when I was trying to decide whether or not to take a new job, another was when I was debating moving to a new city, and again when there was an illness in my family," he said. ''By keeping to my usual routine, I was able to avoid the short-term problem turning into a long-term one."

The routine?

Epstein sets aside quiet time at the end of the day. He has a glass of milk and a cookie, and reads for 10 or 15 minutes before turning off the light between 10:30 and 11.

Epstein, who lives in Brookline with his wife and two sons, is working on a book called ''A Guide to Healthy Sleep."

For sleep tips, visit the American Academy of Sleep Medicine website, www.sleepeducation.com.

AROUND TOWN -- Anne M. Murphy was recently named partnership development director for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Mass/Metrowest. Murphy, who works out of Framingham, recruits sponsors for the agency's school-based mentor program. . . .

At 26, Eric Hewitt of Newton is the youngest department chair in the 138-year-history of the Boston Conservatory. Hewitt, head of the woodwind department and conductor of the conservatory's wind ensemble, mkes his conducting debut Thursday at 8 p.m., in the Boston Conservatory Theater, 31 Hemenway St.

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