By David Seduski | Development Associate
As NFTE Chicago looks ahead to the new school year, we would like to take a moment to thank those of you who donated to our microproject on GlobalGiving. In each NFTE Chicago classroom, teachers lead students through key hands on training activities designed to develop their entrepreneurial mindset. This is what we sought to raise money for on GlobalGiving, allowing each Chicago classroom was still supplied with these crucial activities (though we didn’t hit our fundraising goal). These kits, which help bring NFTE's lessons on sales, marketing, and business financials to life, can also provide the spark of inspiration that helps NFTE students develop their own business plans. As our young entrepreneurs move through the activities in our curriculum they are encourage to apply the new lessons to their own business plans. At the end of the class the students then pitch the ventures in their plans to a panel of judges with the hope of winning seed capital.
The Citywide Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge was hosted by Morningstar on May 20th. The winners of the various Chicago classroom competitions were honed down in the semifinal round to 8 young entrepreneurs representing 6 teams. They converged on Morningstar to pitch their business plan to a panel of local entrepreneurs. The reward: $3,000 in scholarships and prizes for the winner, along with a trip to New York City in October to present for a further $25,000 in prizes at the National Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge. With a chance to push their ventures closer to reality by winning, the NFTE students were on their game for their presentations.
The winner of the Citywide Challenge was Davon S. Davon was volunteering at the Chicago Public Library when she learned a harrowing fact: many children are drastically behind in their reading levels. Her desire to do something about children’s literacy led her to create LevelUP!, a web application which matches a student’s Lexile score to an interest survey and enables them to better select engaging texts. “My community has high poverty and low employment rates. It is filled with underperforming schools, where students have a hard time reading at grade level. My business will give schools, parents and students the tools needed to change this.” Realizing that this is a nationwide problem, she also believes LevelUP! can expand beyond her community.
Davon’s success reaffirms NFTE Chicago’s mission to reach and teach more young people about the unlimited possibilities of entrepreneurship. Thank you again for your donations through the GlobalGiving platform.
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