Not a program. A proven environment. Here is what that means.
This Is Where Your Future Gets Real.
The CDMA Business Model® is where young people stop hearing about careers and start building them. Through real media production, AI storytelling, apprenticeships, and hands-on industry experiences. This is learning that moves.
A Century of Impact: Our 100-Year Legacy
Under the stewardship of our Founder & President, ShaNette Carpenter, a hundred years of inherited enterprise has been institutionalized into an Evidence-Based CTE Ecosystem™ that merges generational community trust with modern business strategy. We do not simply teach business models we protect, defend, and advance a century-long, archivally documented heritage of economic achievement and institutional integrity.
CDMA Business Model Academy of Greater Washington stands upon a documented 100-year legacy of community empowerment, educational excellence, and economic resilience a lineage that begins with a Harlem Renaissance-era employment agency and business school founded by our Founder’s great-grandmother, and preserved today within the Elease Perkins Collection at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture at The New York Public Library.
While our modern corporate framework is structured to meet today’s federal and state compliance standards, our organizational DNA carries forward a century of generational business acumen, mentorship, vocational training, and economic self-reliance devoted to uplifting underrepresented communities.
That heritage has been formally recognized: in 2026, our Founder was honored in the “I Am Her” recognition through NYC Her Future, presented in partnership with the New York City Department of Youth and Community Development and the NYC Mayor’s Office a distinction affirming both the strength of our institution and the reach of our mission. Our thought leadership extends to national education stages, including selection as an SXSW EDU 2026 Mentor, where the future of career-connected learning is shaped.
