A NEW GENERATION OF ENTREPRENEURS
I wear two hats at work. One is that I run a youth entrepreneurship program. The other is that I am a consultant to organizations around the world who want to replicate our programs -- business incubation, training classes, and youth entrepreneurship. Right now, I'm on sabbatical from running the youth entrepreneurship program, so my full-time gig is consulting. One of my clients is an economic development agency in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, which wants to host a business camp for urban teens this summer. This camp will be based on our Boot Camps, which we have hosted every August since 1998.
It has been energizing to advise this group on how to plan, recruit, and fundraise for this event. I first started our youth entrepreneurship program in Philadelphia because I earnestly believed that even the roughest sections of our city were teeming with smart and creative young minds that, if given a stimulating environment and steady encouragement, could be cultivated in tomorrow's business superstars and community leaders. I do not seek to glamorize my work, because it is not glamorous; and I do not seek to patronize the students in my program, because they deserve better than that. The job is a hard one, but it is richly rewarding one, and it is a high honor for me and for my staff to know that we get to walk alongside such wonderful talents at such a formative time in their lives.
It is this same passion which motivates me to help out in other places like Harrisburg, or Dallas, or St. Petersburg, two other cities I've helped out in. All of the talk from politicians about how kids are the most important thing and education is the number one priority often disgusts me. I have been to places that are forgotten in this time of war and terrorism, that were forgotten during the economic boom of the late 1990's, and that have been forgotten for the greater part of a century. It is a damning indictment that there should be any children anywhere in the world that should suffer from malnourishment, neglect, and second class citizenry. It is doubly damning that such a thing could exist in the world's richest country and in that country's richest metropolitan areas.
I am not a ranter, although I am cultivating that side of me. I would like to say that I am more of a doer. And I pray to God daily that He will use my availability first, and the talents and experiences He has given me second, to help raise up a new generation of socially-minded and financially-savvy entrepreneurs from places that many in our society have either forgotten, want to forget, or never bothered to remember.
We cannot live forever, try as we might. We can cheat death for awhile and do what we can to take care of ourselves, shield ourselves from harm, do as much good for ourselves as possible. Or we can pour ourselves out for others, embrace life in all of its suffering and injustice, do as much for others as possible. Only one of these roads leads to eternal life. By grace, I pray I will choose it. "For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel's will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what will a man give in exchange for his soul?" (Mark 8:35-37)
I wear two hats at work. One is that I run a youth entrepreneurship program. The other is that I am a consultant to organizations around the world who want to replicate our programs -- business incubation, training classes, and youth entrepreneurship. Right now, I'm on sabbatical from running the youth entrepreneurship program, so my full-time gig is consulting. One of my clients is an economic development agency in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, which wants to host a business camp for urban teens this summer. This camp will be based on our Boot Camps, which we have hosted every August since 1998.
It has been energizing to advise this group on how to plan, recruit, and fundraise for this event. I first started our youth entrepreneurship program in Philadelphia because I earnestly believed that even the roughest sections of our city were teeming with smart and creative young minds that, if given a stimulating environment and steady encouragement, could be cultivated in tomorrow's business superstars and community leaders. I do not seek to glamorize my work, because it is not glamorous; and I do not seek to patronize the students in my program, because they deserve better than that. The job is a hard one, but it is richly rewarding one, and it is a high honor for me and for my staff to know that we get to walk alongside such wonderful talents at such a formative time in their lives.
It is this same passion which motivates me to help out in other places like Harrisburg, or Dallas, or St. Petersburg, two other cities I've helped out in. All of the talk from politicians about how kids are the most important thing and education is the number one priority often disgusts me. I have been to places that are forgotten in this time of war and terrorism, that were forgotten during the economic boom of the late 1990's, and that have been forgotten for the greater part of a century. It is a damning indictment that there should be any children anywhere in the world that should suffer from malnourishment, neglect, and second class citizenry. It is doubly damning that such a thing could exist in the world's richest country and in that country's richest metropolitan areas.
I am not a ranter, although I am cultivating that side of me. I would like to say that I am more of a doer. And I pray to God daily that He will use my availability first, and the talents and experiences He has given me second, to help raise up a new generation of socially-minded and financially-savvy entrepreneurs from places that many in our society have either forgotten, want to forget, or never bothered to remember.
We cannot live forever, try as we might. We can cheat death for awhile and do what we can to take care of ourselves, shield ourselves from harm, do as much good for ourselves as possible. Or we can pour ourselves out for others, embrace life in all of its suffering and injustice, do as much for others as possible. Only one of these roads leads to eternal life. By grace, I pray I will choose it. "For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel's will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what will a man give in exchange for his soul?" (Mark 8:35-37)
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