Christian Abrego, 16 – Business Plan
Young Sprouts Event Marketing
East Palo Alto, California

"Every time I think about what my mom and dad sacrificed just so I can have a future, I get filled with joy, life and happiness."

Christian Abrego encountered NFTE through the Build program at Menlo-Atherton High School, an experience which he says changed his life. “I met the greatest person on earth, my teacher, Mr. Sweet,” he says. “The moment I walked in the room I knew this wasn’t going to be easy. If I wanted to succeed in life, I had to be focused on college and what my parents can’t give me, money.”

Christian’s business plan for Young Sprouts Event Marketing proposes using sports events to employ young people and create an environment where they can express themselves “without clubs and drugs,” he says. With soccer tournaments, art shows and dance competitions, he wants to “give kids a place to hang out and stay out of trouble in the streets.”

Christian and his family emigrated from Mexico when he was very young. It was a traumatic move in many ways, and Christian appreciates the hardships his parents endured to make a life for the family in the U.S. “When I am tempted by others to do drugs, to steal, or to hurt someone, I think about my parents and how disappointed they would be,” he says. “Other kids my age are not encouraged to try their hardest.”

“During that year of transformation (at high school) I started to notice the real reason my mom came to the U.S.,” Christian says. “She wanted me to be someone in life, to have a healthy family, and not to suffer what she suffered.” Christian immersed himself in the entrepreneurship program and then worked to improve his grades. After high school graduation he plans to go to college and hopes to attend MIT.