NFTE blog

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. 

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.

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.

Glee actress Jane Lynch is determined to help students navigate their college payment options and manage student debt. Lynch recently launched the National College Finance Center, a non-profit website designed to help students navigate their loan options.

It’s never too late to go back to school as one NFTE teacher is proving. Congratulations to Kara Brown, who works with NFTE’s Greater Los Angeles program office, from the Boys & Girls' Clubs of Oxnard.

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.

When it comes to financial literacy, most Americans are alarmingly uninformed. According to a 2009 study, adults earned only a C grade when their financial acumen was assessed, little better than high school students, who mainly received failing grades. In this Huffington Post article, Randi Weingarten explores the opportunities that exist to increase financial literacy across the United States.