(bright music) - This is a production of "PBS Charlotte."

- Just ahead on "Carolina Impact," meet students learning more than the three Rs.

They're learning how to be CEOs.

Plus an international basketball player works to improve reading scores, and we show you how table tennis brings a community together.

It's all on tonight's "Carolina Impact."

(bright music) (screen whooshing) (screen whooshing) Good evening, thanks so much for joining us.

I'm Amy Burkett.

In classrooms across Charlotte, lessons usually focus on math, science and reading, but at ACE Academy students learn something you won't find in a textbook.

It's a lesson that could change the way they see their future.

Kids here are just raising their hands in class, they're raising ideas.

"Carolina Impact's" Chris Clark reveals how what they're building goes far beyond the classroom.

(screen whooshes) - [Chris] At first glance, ACE Academy looks like any other school covering the three R's and the basics every student needs.

But listen closer and you'll notice something different.

Mixed in with the math equations and spelling lists is the buzz of ideas, the energy of collaboration and the spark of ambition.

And here's the twist, it's Saturday morning.

While most kids are still sleeping in, these students are wide awake choosing to spend their weekend building companies because ACE Academy isn't a typical school, it's home to young moguls.

A program where entrepreneurship isn't an afterthought, it's the foundation.

- You have to learn how to read to be a successful entrepreneur, you have to be able to do math, you have to write.

And so, what we're helping the kids do is connect what they're learning during the day with entrepreneurship and they're seeing how those skills translate.

- [Chris] Founded in 2014 by Laila Minott and Shawn Smalls, ACE Academy began with a vision that stretched back years before the school's doors ever opened.

A passion project that put them in front of kids and afterschool programs, summer camps, non-profits, and even church groups.

- We had a company prior to starting Ace Academy Charter School where we taught kids entrepreneurship and we did that for 10 years.

But one of the challenges we had is we were teaching them an introductory course of entrepreneurship.

They weren't able to really create their own businesses.

Some of that was related to time, some of it was resources.

And so, the only way we could really teach kids to be true entrepreneurs was to have our own school.

- [Chris] That vision became the backbone of Ace Academy itself, where entrepreneurship isn't just an elective or an add-on, it's woven into the school day from the very beginning.

But for students who wanna push further, there's a chance to take it to another level.

- The kids learn entrepreneurship through kindergarten all the way to eighth grade every day.

But the young moguls, they come on extra Saturdays.

- [Chris] Kids as young as third grade are encouraged to think about what kind of business they want to run and why?

The answers are as diverse as the children's interests.

- My parents have a business, so I kind of wanted to follow along with the with them.

- My business have different items like drawstring bags, teddy bear key chains, bookmarks and T-shirts, that allow you to show how you feel without you having to say it.

- I knew that I would like to spend like a lot of money on stuff and begging my mom for money wasn't gonna work.

- [Chris] Once the why has been answered and the what takes form, the next chapter is the most demanding of all, the how.

It's in this stage that the ideas collide with the weight of reality.

- We want them to be able to answer a few questions.

So one, can you make this business?

Can do you have access to resources to make it?

So sometimes they'll pick things that you need a manufacturing plant and we'll discuss.

We don't have a manufacturing plant.

So what is tangible?

- [Chris] It's frustrating, but so is doing business in the real world.

Once the wrinkles are ironed out, students draft full business plans and pitch them to the class.

If the idea gets approved, it moves from concept to reality backed by seed money from the school.

- We might have a $500 cap.

Now we've gone over the $500, of course certain businesses require that, right?

And so, it just basically is a cap and then the kids have to work through that cap.

- [Chris] Some products find their way onto the shelves of the school store while others appear at pop-up shops across the community.

No matter where the sales happen, every enterprise collides with real world problems and that's where the learning begins.

- I didn't anticipate that so many people would like it from the gym.

So I kind of never had enough and I always, not always, but most time I sold out.

- Getting the materials and resources that I needed to make the business like with my thesis, we have to go to, like, different other businesses to see if they could print it how I needed it.

- 400 people outta the 500 says no.

Would you be discouraged?

I always ask them that and they're like, "Yeah, I'm discouraged, I'm upset."

Right, 400 people said no to you, but 100 people bought your product at $10 a pop.

How much money do you have?

And then the light bulb goes off.

- [Chris] On select weekends, guest entrepreneurs from chefs to podcasters step into the classroom sharing their journeys and opening windows to worlds these young moguls might never have imagined.

What they take away goes far beyond business plans or profit margins.

It reshapes how they think about money, responsibility, and choices they make every day.

- Not only do you get to earn money, but you also get to learn more about the financial part and learn more when it comes to the future as well.

You know, like earning and saving, and then splitting it up and being able to spend on the needs before the wants.

Like I may wanna get my hair done or something, but sometimes that has to come last and I have to put, you know, like the artwork first and get product first.

- [Chris] Beyond the dollars and cents, the program builds something even more valuable.

A voice.

Week by week students learn to stand taller, pitch bolder, carry themselves with the kind of confidence that spills into classrooms, living rooms and public settings far beyond the school walls.

- It taught me about like financially how to do my money and how to be more social again, not the most extroverted person.

- They'll have us talking to customers and speaking in front of an audience like our classmates and our peers.

And that's just been able to help me do it outside of the classroom and be able to present myself in network.

- [Chris] In just four years, young moguls has transformed classroom lessons into more than $35,000 in student run businesses and counting.

But the true measure of success isn't in the sales, it's in the skills.

Confidence, resilience and vision are taking root in these young entrepreneurs proving that the future of business leadership isn't waiting until tomorrow.

It's already here.

For "Carolina Impact," I'm Chris Clark.

- Thank you, Chris.

For these students, success isn't just measured in grades, it's measured in ideas, resilience and courage, which is a lesson they'll carry long after graduation.

When it comes to preparing kids for the future, every opportunity counts.

Just down the road in Shelby, Gabe DeVoe's name is synonymous with basketball, but today that story isn't about the points he scored.

Instead, it's about a different kind of win.

"Carolina Impact's," Dara Khaalid and videographer John Branscum have our story.

(screen whooshes) (upbeat music) - [Dara] It's a friendly but kind of intense game of basketball.

Sneakers squeaking on the gym floor, a little trash talking here and there, but lots of fun and laughter.

- Just like old times.

Just like old times.

That's what he could do.

He's behind that three point line.

Make magic happen.

- [Dara] Professional basketball player Gabe Devoe has played on courts across the country and now the world, but nothing compares to being back home in Shelby playing some ball in his old high school gym with the same kids who grew up watching him play.

- All throughout my high school career, they were here on the sidelines cheering me on and to know that the impact I put on their lives from a basketball perspective and it's been pretty surreal getting back in here with them.

- [Dara] The same fire you see now is the same one that burned inside Gabe in 2014 as a senior point guard dominating the court, eventually becoming North Carolina Player of the Year and helping lead his team to three conference championships.

- I'm sure he was asked by many people to transfer and go to different places, but he didn't.

He was loyal to Shelby High School.

He wanted to, you know, he wanted to put his names up on the wall.

He wanted to make his mark here.

- [Dara] He didn't stop there.

On a full ride basketball scholarship, he went on to Clemson University where he played his heart out until 2018, when he signed a deal to become a professional baller overseas.

Gabe now plays for Sella Cento and calls Italy home.

But every time he's back home.

- [Gabe] Which one you want?

Here you go.

- [Dara] He wants to make an impact and not just with the basketball.

- This is something that I had planned years ago and finally see it come to fruition has been very cool and rewarding.

- [Dara] He's talking about the book giveaway he's hosting at Changers Church in Shelby through his nonprofit, the Gabe Devoe Foundation, where they're giving away 400 books to kids in the community.

- That some of 'em don't get at home and so we try to, you know, motivate them from here.

- [Dara] Which is needed because according to the North Carolina Department of Public Instructions Report Card, 54.3% of students in Cleveland County schools are proficient in reading.

That's about five points below the state average.

- How are you all doin' today?

- [Dara] Local mom, Brianna McCluney says her daughter Chloe is doing well in reading but she knows the stats tell a different story for many students.

That's one of the big reasons she keeps bringing Chloe to the educational events, the foundation host.

- It actually encourages the kids 'cause now they have books and they'll say, "We got these books from Gabe and want to read 'em."

- She perks up a little more when she looks outside.

- [Dara] And as Chloe sits on the bleachers listening to Gabe read a book, she's full of excitement because he's an athlete just like her but also because he's inspired her.

- Make me feel good 'cause I know I can push myself to do better like he is.

- [Dara] It's a nostalgic feeling for Gabe, flipping through the pages of a children's book.

It reminds him of when he was their age.

- Growing up there was a lot of fiction, fantasy books, all the "Harry Potter" books, "Charlie Bone."

What's up, everybody?

- [Dara] Whenever he wasn't playing basketball, his nose was always in a book.

- School was very important to me and just as competitive as I was on the court, I was off the court as well, so I was always the guy that wanted to read the most AR books.

- [Dara] And just because he grew up doesn't mean he's outgrown his love for reading.

- And as I got older it's become more self-help books finances, things like that.

- [Dara] Which comes in handy because even though he's not a student in the classroom anymore, he is a student of life.

When he explores Italy and his free time, and as he's discovered there's a learning curve.

- [Gabe] Definitely the food.

Trying to figure out what you like.

Just even going to the grocery store and trying to shop for items and it being in a different language.

- [Dara] Despite a few adjustments that come with having a career abroad, Gabe tells me there are perks that come with it too.

And not just for him.

- My dad had never been outta the country and for him to be able to come to France, come to Italy, my mom being able to come to Lithuania, some place she never would've been to, been very rewarding.

- [Dara] All of this is just his way of saying thank you for their sacrifices over the years and for instilling in him the importance of excellence and academics.

- I think in a household it was like never questioned.

Reading was a huge part of their lives.

They did it every day after school.

- [Dara] And as they all reminisce at the Shelby High Trophy case, his parents also taught him the same standard for excellence applied to sports.

- Oh, you said a lot of records, you've broke a lot of records here, and a lot of records you've set, they still haven't been broken as of today.

- [Dara] Gabe's international career doesn't leave much time in Shelby, but when he is home, he makes it count using basketball and reading to build a legacy that'll last for generations.

(Gabe claps) For "Carolina Impact," I'm Dara Khaalid.

- Thank you, Dara.

The Gabe Devoe Foundation also gives out scholarships to high school senior athletes.

It's given out $20,000 since founded in 2022.

Let's move from big courts to small tables.

Our next story proves you don't have to be tall to love the game.

In fact, all you need is quick reflexes and a paddle to keep up with the lightning fast action at one of the region's hottest table tennis clubs.

(screen whooshes) (upbeat music) (table tennis ball clattering) - Mentally, it's like a game of chess.

You have to think about what your opponent's gonna do and you have to think about what you're gonna do to that hit.

You're always trying to trick the opponents.

- The forehand drive is gonna be close to a hundred miles an hour.

And you're talking about a distance of maybe 12 to 15 feet between players.

So at that speed, that distance, there's just not much time to react.

It's very quick.

(upbeat music) We are at the Charlotte Table Tennis Club.

We've been in the Charlotte area since 1979.

We have about 180 members, most of them international folks from everywhere in Asia and Europe, and South America.

Age levels in our club from about seven to 90, different levels of ability.

US rating system from roughly zero to 3,000 will have under 2200, under 1900, under 1700.

So you're playing competitively against people kind of at your level.

You have a chance to win something kind of where you are, which is very encouraging.

So we have an under 1100 event.

So pretty much novice players can come and compete with other novice players.

- It's a lot of hard work but everybody can have fun, you know.

I have cerebral palsy where so like my like right side is not as strong as my left.

Ain't haven't stopped me at all.

I'm very blessed to be here and I'm very happy, you know.

I'm training for the 2028 Paralympic games in Los Angeles.

- I took some lessons, I was being coached, and now I'm coaching somebody else.

I'm still competitive, active in the table tennis competition.

Competition.

I play all age, all the field.

Yeah, no matter men, women still working hard or challenging hard.

You see how they play.

I play them all the time.

- People first come in, we kind of suggest they get a coach.

Having a few lessons helps a lot, helps you to be able to read, spin.

Helps you with kind of the fundamentals.

The game moves so fast that you can kind of intellectually learn what to do but you have to train your body to make it happen in the short time you're allowed to have it happen.

If you stop to think about it, the ball's already passed you.

- Use your legs like torque, pivot.

What I love about coaching is it kind of allows me to like refine my own skills when I see it in like another player that I'm like helping out.

And it just shows me like you know, I have to pay attention to them, like, very like particularly like okay, what racket angle are they doing?

How's their footwork?

How's their serve?

(upbeat music) - So if you wanna be good at this, you have to have leg power kind of, because not all the shots are from the arm, they're always from the legs to move your body.

I try to do like the weird serves and spins to try to trick them up.

- That was one of the things I was drawn to.

It just how like precise you have to be and just how fast the refluxes have to be.

- Pushes this way, just a light touch.

Give underspin.

Loop is heavy against a ball coming off the table, making it spin.

- A pendulum serve, which is like a pendulum clock and you like add slight spin on to that one.

- And Charlotte Table Tennis Club is very friendly to me has been, we like a family.

Family.

It's part of my life.

Almost 20 years here.

- Don't be intimidated, come expect that most people will really hit the ball past you pretty easily but stay with it for a while.

Find someone to get some lessons from.

I want you to get better 'cause that'll force me to get better.

(upbeat music) - Thank you, Russ.

You might be surprised to learn table tennis became an Olympic sport in 1988.

The first international Table Tennis Federation World Championships were held in London back in 1926.

I'm gonna wrap up things tonight with a little Shakespeare.

"Romeo, Romeo!

Wherefore art thou Romeo?

Deny thy father and refuse thy name."

Of course, that's the famous opening lines to William Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet."

Juliet later says, "What's in a name?"

As she tells Romeo that a name's nothing but a name.

Joining us now "Carolina Impact's" Jason Terzis, with the story of another unique name.

- All right, the question, do you call them sneakers or tennis shoes?

Lightning bugs or fireflies?

Pop, soda, coke?

Flapjacks, pancakes, or hotcakes?

Sprinkles or even Jimmys.

The options are apparently endless for some things, but the reason the person we're about to introduce you to one name simply says it all.

(screen whooshes) - [Matt] Oh, and then these are the cheddar and chive biscuits.

(upbeat music) - [Jason] It's another early morning for Matt Cabana.

Hard at work, filling the day's orders, - Everything that's checked is everything that we've baked today.

- [Jason] But if someone had said to Matt just a few years ago that this is what he'd be doing, he'd never believe it.

- You're going to, you know, give up alcohol, you're gonna own a... I would've been like, "You're out of your mind."

You're absolutely... But like, "Thank, God."

- [Jason] So it's only fitting that the name of his small yet popular business is 'The Accidental Baker."

- The bakery never would've happened if I didn't have Caroline, or if I had continued drinking, never would've happened.

These are our sourdough English muffins here, the sandwich bread.

That's why the whole name of the bakery is as such.

(upbeat music) - [Jason] Matt's life used to be consumed by tennis, as a professional player and coach.

- Summer was traveling around the country playing national tournaments, and then decided I needed a big boy job, which was a terrible position and started working in corporate America, which wasn't quite my fit.

- [Jason] In December of 2022, Matt's drinking reached a breaking point.

He checked himself into rehab.

- So he put himself in treatment, which is amazing.

It's not a common thing, you know, I was really proud of him for doing that.

And when he came back from treatment, he still had his corporate job.

- [Jason] But that job didn't last.

Six months later, Matt was let go.

The timing couldn't have been worse.

- On my birthday.

- On his birthday.

- At the time it seemed like the end of the world, you know, I was just had a treatment, I got let go of my job.

I didn't know what I wanted to do.

- [Jason] With a lot of unexpected time, now on his hands, Matt gravitated towards a place he was familiar and most comfortable with, the kitchen.

- Being from upstate New York, being Italian, I spent time in the kitchen with my great-grandmother, and my grandmother, and my mother.

- He was home a lot and he was baking a lot.

- And that gave me time to really adjust and study and research recipes.

- So I was like, "Don't just get a job, to get a job.

Like take your time, figure out what you want to do."

- [Jason] With wife Caroline, and the rest of her family sticking to a gluten-free diet.

Matt asked the question a lot of people ask, "Why is most gluten-free food, well, bad."

- You know, there's only like disgusting gluten-free products available at that time.

They were horrible.

And so I remember my cake at my high school graduation, you could have killed someone with it.

It was like this dense brick of a cake.

It was awful.

- You know, he'd come to our family dinners and be like, "I can't believe you guys are eating that."

- And I asked her, I was like, "Is this normal?"

Like, and she said, "Yeah, it's just the way it is."

And my first thought was, "That's not fair."

You know, I don't think people just because you can't have, you know, gluten that you should have to not be able to eat good food.

- [Jason] So Matt started experimenting.

- So these are the Cornettis, which is like an Italian version of a croissant.

I realized that there was this need for better gluten-free food and there was something that was missing for these, these group of people.

- Part of his inspiration was like, I want to make food that you can't tell if it's gluten-free.

- I can remember the first loaf of gluten-free sourdough I made was absolutely terrible.

It was awful.

So there's been a lot of failure.

- [Jason] Continuously tweaking ingredients and recipes, Matt zeroed in on what works and tastes the best.

- Everything is organic that we can get available as organic.

We use grass-fed butter, we use pasture raised eggs.

We had no seed oils.

- He would start bringing food into my salon for me and my staff to have and clients, and people were like going crazy over it.

I mean, even people that weren't gluten-free.

- And everybody kind of said, you know, "You should really offer this to more people."

So it was kind of like they planted the seed in me to give it a shot.

- [Jason] That seed began to grow.

Matt deciding to give this gluten-free bakery a go.

Now he just needed a name.

- One of my wife's clients was there and we were talking about, "Well, I'm thinking about starting a bakery.

I don't know what to name it."

- You know, I think he was kind of sharing his story with her and she's like, "You're the accidental baker."

- And she's like, "What about the accidental baker?"

- And he was like, "You're right, I am."

(laughs) - It's like, it seems like it was an accident.

And I was like, "That's great."

- [Jason] Focusing on the best ingredients available.

And of course, taste, Matt worked tirelessly to create a well-rounded menu.

- If I see something in my research where there's another version of what I'm making that could be better, I'm gonna try it.

- It's really nice to see that thoroughness I think and attention to detail and bringing in really good ingredients.

And you know, he's just kind of a perfectionist with his recipes and you can tell.

- So we have about 25 to 30 items on the menu.

- You can go to a lot of places and get a gluten-free cookie or a muffin or whatever.

But to be able to get a croissant or a gluten-free loaf of sourdough, things like that, I mean you really can't find that anywhere.

- You know, I wanted to make sure we had a great bagel.

And you know, I can't say I'm from New York and I make bagels unless they're great bagels.

So thankfully, you know, we just got run up for Best Bagel in Charlotte, and that was among all bagel places.

- [Jason] Coming up on two years in business, "The Accidental Baker" is still relatively small.

For now, limited to online orders with a minimum purchase and the usually jam packed walk-ins for individual items on Saturday mornings.

- When people say, "Move in to Europe, your bakeries better."

That just lets me know that we're on the right track.

That we're doing the right thing.

That you know, okay, we're making stuff that people enjoy and we gotta keep it up.

- [Jason] Working to fill a void in the food chain while also redirecting a personal life that not too long ago involved rehab and unemployment.

I'd say that's a pretty solid turnaround.

- December of 2025 will be three years of no alcohol.

- And his is just another great example of, you know, coming out of a difficult situation and using it to fuel your purpose and to help other people and empower other people.

There's just really no better feeling, so it's exciting.

- I mean it's been amazing to watch and it's very inspiring, and I think just a testament to, you can do whatever you want to do.

- Okay, Jason, I understand the reviews so far are pretty incredible.

- Yeah, he's really found a great niche right here.

And you know, hard to beat a perfect 5.0 rating, but that's what "The Accidental Baker" currently has on Google.

Also, keep in mind those weekdays by pre-orders only, it's Saturdays when he's got his big business with the lines out front because that's when people wanna show up and just basically get whatever he's got.

So Saturday mornings, that's the big draw.

- You've made me hungry.

Another fun story.

Thanks so much for sharing, Jason.

Well, that does it for us this evening.

That's all the time we have.

We always appreciate your time and we look forward to seeing you back here again next time on "Carolina Impact."

Good night, my friends.

(screen whooshes) (bright music) (bright music) - This is a production of "PBS Charlotte."