By David Seduski | Development Associate
NFTE Chicago recently celebrated am incredibly successful end to our 2014 – 2015 school year. We were thrilled with the donations we received towards giving each of our students a USB drive to help with the creation of their business plans. The culminating experience for NFTE students is the creation and presentation of a business plan. In order to jumpstart this process, and allow for students in under resourced communities to have access to their work in a public setting, NFTE gives each student a flash drive with a business template on it to create and save their plan throughout the school year. The donations we received through GlobalGiving helped us provide students with the opportunity to see the ideas they presented in their business plan come to life. Thanks again for your contributions.
The Chicago Regional Business Plan Challenge was hosted by Morningstar on May 20th. The winners of the various Chicago classroom competitions were honed down to 8 young entrepreneurs representing 6 teams in the semifinal round. 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.
One of the big winners of the afternoon was the team of Marco Q. and Eduardo R., the co-founders of Inventive Smoothie. A food trailer selling health conscious, fresh-ingredient smoothies to busy professionals in the metropolitan area, the duos ambitious startup grew out of a desire to combat obesity with healthier food choices. Marcos and Eduardo were always interested in business, but say the NFTE program gave them new insight on how to jump-start a business, network, and see a problem as an opportunity. They also learned to identify their individual strengths and weaknesses, allowing them to divide and conquer obstacles. Marcos, who thrived doing the financials, will continue to pursue a degree in accounting; while Eduardo, who loved the marketing aspects, will pursue his degree in business. For placing second, the team will advance to the National Challenge this October in New York.
Marco and Eduardo’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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