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But when it comes to the professional world, she feels like a newcomer. Going to meetings with networking groups in Calvert County means finding a way to talk with people she has never met, and who are usually years, sometimes decades, older than she is.

‘‘A lot of people are in their own little groups, and it’s just little me, and I’m kind of like nobody,” she said. ‘‘Sometimes it’s hard to just walk up to a random group and just talk to them.”

When she started talking to her friends about it, they said the same things. Soon, the Young Professionals Network was created.

The Calvert group is one of the growing ranks of networking and business groups in Maryland aimed at fostering young professionals and entrepreneurs.

Investment adviser Henry Becker, 38, of New Market, founded the Frederick Young Professionals Group in August for business people ages 25-40 who want to connect with their peers. The growing group, with 50 members, meets monthly for happy hour at downtown Frederick bars to share business ideas and socialize.

The group includes a bevy of entrepreneurs starting insurance firms and Web design companies, plus a member starting a slumber party business.

‘‘We have entrepreneurs from all over the map,” said Becker, who moved from Pittsburgh two years ago and is himself gearing up to launch a financial services business for post-baby boomers.

James Fair of Hagerstown, who started his own travel agency, Awesome Travel Club, launched the Frederick-Hagerstown Entrepreneurial Group in July for members to plug their new companies at social events. So far, the meetup.com group has drawn 18 members, according to its Web site.

Other groups have more formal connections to established organizations.

Under the auspices of the Prince George’s Chamber of Commerce, young entrepreneurs have come together to form a new Junior Chamber of Commerce.

The senior chamber’s motto is to ‘‘grow our own” business leaders, said president and CEO James A. Dula, who called the new chamber ‘‘a great first step in the right direction.”

The Greater Bethesda-Chevy Chase Chamber of Commerce is targeting younger professionals through its NextExec Committee, which holds mixers and programs for them.

The Rockville Chamber of Commerce offers a StartEarly! Young Entrepreneur Essay Competition, which will provide small grants for high school and post-secondary students.

In the schools themselves, Kevin Murley teaches an entrepreneurship class at Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring. Among his students’ activities: They practice writing business plans, with some having earned top honors recently in the National Federation for Teaching Entrepreneurship’s annual business plan competition.

Twice a year Murley’s students go to New York City, where, he said, ‘‘they are given seed money to buy goods in the wholesale district in downtown Manhattan, where they learn negotiating skills dealing with the vendors. Then they bring their products back and sell them, getting an opportunity to earn a profit for themselves.”

The number of younger entrepreneurs in the United States is significant, according to the U.S. Census 2002 survey of business owners. Of 20.5 million respondents, 2.8 million, or 13.8 percent, were younger than 35. The vast majority held majority ownership in those enterprises.

‘Really want to makea difference’

Hernandez is one of four co-founders of the Lusby group. She and Heather McDonald, Mikaela Clark and Lauren Simpson graduated from high school together and are now breaking into the professional world. McDonald owns a clothing store in Prince Frederick and is about to open another. Simpson works at the Holiday Inn Select in Solomons, for the hospitality company her father runs. Clark works in the law office of Davis, Upton and Palumbo.

The group is working to recruit professionals between the ages of 21 and 39, and so far it’s succeeding. The first group activity was a meeting at Jake and Al’s Chophouse in Lusby, which Hernandez said drew about 20 interested people.

Next, the group volunteered for the United Way Day of Caring, painting a house for the Southern Maryland Community Network. Hernandez got the help of her boss, Carrie Polk, who, at 37, is also joining the group.

‘‘We’re still new,” Hernandez said. ‘‘We’re young, professional people that really want to make a difference and get their names out there.”

Simpson said the network was created out of necessity.

‘‘We felt there wasn’t any way to meet young people in the professional community,” she said. ‘‘We wanted to get social networking for professionals and have it not just be social.”

Support and mentorshipfor junior chamber

When Noble Okeke, 20, an intern with the Prince George’s chamber, approached its leaders with the idea of a junior chamber, the stamp of approval came quickly.

‘‘I haven’t heard of another like it in the state of Maryland,” Dula said. Although other chambers may have a youth component, he is not aware of one with an actual junior chamber and young entrepreneurs on board.

The junior chamber falls under the umbrella of the Prince George’s Chamber of Commerce’s Youth Committee, which also has a subcommittee focused on developing skills such as communication, networking, ethics and leadership.

The first meeting in August included a mix of students and parents, some of whom also own a business.

Okeke, president of the junior chamber and a junior at Bowie State University, is finishing up a business plan for a venture he plans to start by the end of the year.

‘‘I know plenty of entrepreneurs my age, and the Junior Chamber of Commerce is perfect,” he said.

Okeke envisions the junior chamber as an initiative that will take root across the country.

‘‘I’m hoping that we go national,” he said, then added, ‘‘I know that we’ll go national.”

The junior chamber’s goal differs from those of the U.S. Junior Chamber, or Jaycees, a national group that tends to focus more on community service projects.

Junior chamber chapters are operating at Capitol College in Laurel and Prince George’s Community College in Largo. Bowie State is developing a chapter, and University of Maryland University College has expressed interest, Dula said. ‘‘So we’re getting there,” he said.

High school chapters are being considered for Charles Herbert Flowers High School in Springdale and Oxon Hill High School.

‘‘Our expectations are, by the end of October, we should have at least four high schools signed up as members of the junior chamber,” Dula said.

College students will help mentor high school students, and mentors from the senior chamber will be available to both groups.