NFTE blog

The statistics are overwhelming:

• 50% of the world’s population is under the age of 27
• 1.5 billion people ages 15-29 are vying for only 300 million jobs

NFTE is bringing the solution to these horrific statistics, entrepreneurship education for all young people, to the 2013 World Economic Forum.

How I found my NFTE business idea.

By Maxine Colon
NFTE New England Student

My name is Maxine Colon and I'm currently a NFTE student, attending the BusinessTechnology Program at Keefe Tech in Framingham, MA. During shop, my NFTE teacher Mrs. Ellis introduced the NFTE Business Plan and encouraged us to start thinking of business ideas which was not as easy as it sounds! I started talking with friends and I hadn’t even connected my real life to this course. Yet!

By Katherine Pilnick
Guest Blogger

If you’re drawn to the idea of not having to report to anyone, setting your own goals and hand-picking your co-workers, you may be interested in becoming an entrepreneur. Starting your own company can be highly rewarding, but a successful business requires much more than a good idea.

It calls for thorough professional know-how, which means you’ll have to know about every aspect of starting and running a business. You’ll also have to lean on your financial literacy in order to make your business profitable.

“Our high school feels like an elementary school,” and that’s creating an engaged student body. Gallup recently released results from a student poll that show a dramatic decline in student engagement from elementary school to high school.

From NFTE Bay Area

Michael Chow and David Bettner, then of Zynga with Friends, headlined a panel discussion on entrepreneurship at NFTE Bay Area’s Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge. Michael and David are best known for inventing and releasing Words with Friends, which topped 60 million downloads.

Sana Shah participated in NFTE's World Series of Innovation, and her team went on to win their category. The following is a short summary of how NFTE's programs are inspiring students to engage with their school work and innovate.

What apps have you designed? 28 Students in NFTE’s New York Metro NYC Generation Tech program just completed the inaugural program to design and build a usable app. The winning app, selected by a team of judges, including Tumblr founder, David Karp, is SkooBrik.

By: Keon Massey, 12th Grade NFTE Student

I didn’t know anything about the fundamentals of business when I was first introduced to the entrepreneurship class at my school, but I knew that I loved marketing. In September, my NFTE class went on a field trip to the Philadelphia Convention Center to meet and work with professionals from Ernst & Young. At the EY Connect Day,  I was introduced to Mrs. Sylvia McKinney, the executive director of NFTE Philadelphia, and the business world. We all had an assignment to develop a better business plan from a business assigned to us at random. The group that I led performed perfectly, and we won the competition that day.

That was just for starters

As we prepare for the end of 2012 and the beginning of 2013, NFTE Greater Dallas has a great deal to brag about! 

The school year is in full swing and have already held so many great events. Our first event took place on a rainy Saturday in September when we had over 100 students come together and work with several volunteers to review and revise their submissions for the World Series of Innovation. NFTE Dallas had over 150 submissions with two business ideas making it to the final round. Congratulations to all.