NFTE blog

By Kate Materese

Hi everyone--

When reflecting on my NFTE experiences this week, I couldn’t help but entertain a few philosophical musings.  Please indulge briefly, since I believe these highlight a unique facet of what we at NFTE do.

Despite all of the interconnectedness of our modern technological society, America is often a nation of fragmentation.  It’s the 99% v. the 1%; Unions v. corporations; Democrats v. Republicans; race v. race; religion v. religion—the list goes on.  Especially in a city as large as New York, it’s easy to forget that the 8 million people living here do collectively comprise a single community.

Anthony Carmona, a NFTE grad, spoke Sunday during Mashable's Social Good Summit as part of a Microsoft panel. Watch Anthony, the owner of Anthony Knows Computers, to see what he says about creating a business you love.

By: Cale Morrow

            Some opportunities come once in a lifetime, and sometimes these never reoccurring experiences place fundamental ideas into our minds that cause the light bulb of life to “click” and an important issue to become clear. A moment such as this occurred to me while in San Francisco at the 2012 TechCrunch Conference.

By Kate Materese

Hello again!

Carlos and I underwent training at NFTE U-- a warp speed experience that compressed what children in program classrooms across the country will learn through NFTE into a four day seminar for adults.  Teachers and program managers in attendance were asked to create business plans based on NFTE’s new business plan template for students.

Intro by: Sylvia McKinney, NFTE Philadelphia Executive Director

NFTE Philadelphia is busy getting back into the routine of school, but last year’s regional challenge winners are also busy. They’re prepping for next month’s NFTE National Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge. Both young entrepreneurs who will represent the Philadelphia program office, Raleigh Russell and Dominique Hughes, share their paths to success.

NFTE's program offices anticipate helping more than 18,000 students discover entrepreneurship this school year. That's nearly 2,000 additional students compared to last school year.

The South Florida program office, in 2011-2012, reached the most students overall, while the NY Metro program office brought NFTE to the most schools. The chart below shows the number of schools where NFTE is at work and the number of students who completed the program.

By: Estelle Reyes, NFTE Greater LA Executive Director

As we begin our 2012-2013 school year, we are excited about the new opportunities the school year brings to spark our students’ creativity and imagination about their future. We are continuing to see the impact of our students discovering entrepreneurship and pursuing opportunities that help them realize their full potential.

Meet Kate Materese, NFTE Program Manager. As mentioned yesterday, Kate is one of two new staff members from NFTE’s New York Metro program office who will be blogging about their experiences with NFTE this school year.

Hi everyone! My name is Kate Materese, and I’m excited to be joining NFTE as a Program Manager after five years of teaching middle school in the Bronx.

School bells are ringing, and NFTE is ready to help more young people develop an entrepreneurial mindset. This school year, two new members of NFTE’s New York Metro program office, Kate Materese and Carlos Mendoza, will blog about working with NFTE students and learning the NFTE way. Today, meet Carlos:

Hi, my name is Carlos Mendoza and I am excited to be part of the NFTE family!  Prior to joining NFTE, I was a member of City Year New York from 2008-2012, where I had the opportunity to manage and coach diverse teams of AmeriCorps members in two Queens public middle schools—IS 126 and IS 204—around their work to improve their students’ attendance, behavior, and performance in English and math.