NFTE blog

By Amy Rosen

I had a wonderful experience today helping chart the course for bringing financial literacy to all young Americans. I joined the President's Advisory Council on Financial Capability in presenting our findings to President Obama.

My name is Jessica Cervantes and I am the founder of Popsy Cakes, the 2008 NFTE National award winning company. NFTE changed my life. They didn’t just teach me how to operate my own business, but they taught life skills. I am able to communicate with others and I can even stand and speak in front of an audience, and although I am still terribly nervous, I have conquered my fear of public speaking. NFTE has also in many ways funded my company and my education. I am now a senior at the University of Miami. I am a Microbiology major and hope to attend Med School in the Fall of 2014. My business is thriving, thanks to the help of many, notably Bill Hansen, Craig Edelmen, and Stewart Merkin. Popsy Cakes is now in over 50 locations including Miami International Airport and Bongos in Downtown Disney.  We are now expanding our company, looking for investors, and trying to meet our high demand.

My story began about 6 years ago when I was a junior at John A. Ferguson Senior High School.

Today at 9:00 AM ET (Tuesday, November 27th) the Microsoft Giving Tuesday begins! This is your last chance to Double Your Impact and your gift to NFTE through the generosity of the people at Microsoft. Matches will be made up to $1,000 per donor, per project on the Give For Youth website, and funding is limited. 

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.

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.

How can a college degree statistically improve your odds of finding a job? Look at this job growth data for people with a high school diploma, some college, or bachelor’s degree via Whitney Tilson.

Congratulations to this year's Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2012 Alumni Fund Scholarship Recipients! Ernst & Young generously supports these young NFTE graduates, and NFTE is sincerely grateful. Some of this year's scholarship recipients have dreams of becoming entrepreneurs, investors and community leaders. Discover the schools they are attending and where they took the NFTE program.

Where are new jobs coming from? NFTE supporter Ernst & Young knows: Entrepreneurs are driving 30% job growth at the more than 600 companies represented by E&Y’s 2012 US Entrepreneur Of The Year® program. That compares to negative overall U.S. job growth. Revenue growth is even greater at 48% compared to an American average of 5.6%.

NFTE made several significant announcements at the White House Financial Literacy Summit. In addition, several NFTE graduates represented the organization in a variety of ways. See pictures from the event below.